Sharp-tailed Grouse

Tympanuchus phasianellus

Stomps and rattles its tail on dancing grounds at dawn. Your message comes with a side of choreography.

Population: ~760,000 mature individuals globally (2019 estimate), trend increasing
Habitat: Open prairie, grassland, and shrub-steppe — from pine savannahs in the eastern upper Midwest to short/mid-grass and sagebrush prairies of the Great Plains, plus bogs, agricultural edges, and open woodland; shifts to taller shrub/wetland cover (aspen, birch, conifer stands, sheltered streamside shrub) in fall and winter
Fun fact: Each spring, male Sharp-tailed Grouse gather on traditional communal display grounds called "leks," where they stamp their feet up to 20 times a second, inflate bright purple neck sacs, and rattle their pointed tail feathers to attract females.
Range: Central, northern, and northwestern North America: Alaska, northern and western Canada (historically 8 provinces), and the northern/western contiguous U.S. (historically 21 states); extirpated from California, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, and New Mexico (the New Mexico subspecies T. p. hueyi is extinct)
Diet: Mostly herbivorous — seeds, buds, berries, catkins, forbs, leaves, grain, and fruit — supplemented with insects (especially grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, ants) in summer; forages on the ground in warmer months and in trees for buds during winter
Size: 0.43 m
Wingspan: 0.63 m
Lifespan: 7.5 years

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