Description: Mostly brown in color with horizontal barring and short, rounded tails, lesser prairie-chickens are about the size of a small domestic chicken. Males have red-purple air sacs on the sides of their necks that inflate during courtship displays in spring.
Range: Lesser prairie-chickens historically occupied the grasslands of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas and southeastern Colorado.
Habitat: These birds prefer sandy grassland areas that have an abundance of midgrasses, sandsage and yucca.
Diet: Grasshoppers and other insects provide most of the birds' food supply during the summer. In winter, their food source is primarily made up of seeds, leaves, grain and milo from agriculture lands.
Reproduction: Like the grouse, lesser prairie-chickens are polygamous. Males attract females to the leks with elaborate dancing displays, showing off their red air sacs and yellow combs. Hens typically lay 12 eggs which hatch in 24 to 26 days.
Endangered status: The lesser prairie-chicken is listed as threatened in Colorado. Populations have declined dramatically throughout their range during the past several decades, and biologists estimate that only about 50,000 breeding birds remain nationwide. As with the other prairie grouse species, the reason for the decline is a loss of native prairie as a result of agriculture and overgrazing by livestock. Colorado’s population is currently estimated at fewer than 500 breeding birds, located for the most part on the Comanche National Grassland near Campo in southeastern Colorado, which is administered by the U.S. Forest Service. In addition, several smaller pockets of these birds are found on private ranches south of Holly, east of Eads and south of the Cimarron River in the extreme southeastern corner of the state.
In an effort to establish another population in eastern Colorado, some birds were released east of Pueblo in some sandsage-yucca habitat. This transplant is still being evaluated.
The Division of Wildlife has conducted studies of lesser prairie-chickens in Colorado, and biologists pinpointed the habitat preferences of these birds. By trapping, radio-collaring and releasing some of the lesser prairie-chickens that reside on the national grasslands, researchers have been better able to document the movements of these birds through the mating, nesting and brood rearing seasons. A five-state conservation team has been organized to identify management actions that will conserve lesser prairie-chickens and their habitat over all of their currently occupied range.
For more information, see the Natural Diversity Information Source species profile.