Sharp-tailed Grouse

The Sharp-tailed Grouse is a ground-dwelling bird of the open northern plains and brushy brushlands of North America. Highly social, it is famous for its spring lekking behavior where males gather to compete for female attention. Physically, it is a robust, well-camouflaged bird with a mottled brown-and-white plumage. It is adapted to cold climates, growing specialized fringe-like scales on its toes during winter to act as snowshoes and help walk over deep snow drifts. Although still widely distributed, their populations have contracted in southern parts of their range due to habitat loss and conversion of native prairies to agriculture.

Diagnostic features of the Sharp-tailed Grouse include its characteristic pointed tail, where the two central feathers are significantly longer than the others. In flight, the underparts show white under-tail coverts and heavily barred flanks, while the belly is mostly white with small V-shaped brown markings. Their coloration is a blend of pale brown, buff, and black above, providing excellent camouflage. Males exhibit a yellow-orange comb over their eyes and have small, barely visible pinkish-to-pale-purple air sacs on the sides of their necks, which expand during courtship displays.

Similar Species

• Greater Prairie-Chicken: Shares a similar habitat but has a dark, rounded tail, heavy horizontal barring across the entire underparts (lacking the clean white belly), and males display large orange neck air sacs during courtship.
• Ruffed Grouse: Typically occupies denser forests rather than open prairies and features a broad, dark-banded, fan-shaped tail.
• Female Ring-necked Pheasant: Possesses a much longer, pointed tail, lacks the white undertail coverts, and does not show the V-shaped belly markings of the Sharp-tailed Grouse.

Sharp-tailed Grouse inhabit flat or gently rolling grasslands, shrub-steppe, brushy edges, and birch or aspen savannas. They rely heavily on areas with a high density of native bunchgrasses, supplemented by deciduous shrubs and trees that provide essential winter food and cover. Their range spans from Alaska and western Canada across the northern Great Plains, extending south into Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. They are generally non-migratory, but they may make short seasonal movements of up to several miles from open breeding prairies to brushy draws and wooded valleys in winter to escape harsh winds and access tree buds.

The hallmark of Sharp-tailed Grouse social behavior is the communal breeding ground, or lek. From early spring to early summer, males gather at dawn to perform a highly synchronized, frantic courtship dance. During this display, they lower their heads, extend their wings horizontally, raise their pointed tails vertically to display the white undertail, inflate their purple/pink cervical air sacs, and stamp their feet rapidly—up to 20 times per second—creating a drumming sound. They also rattle their tail feathers and emit soft cooing and cackling sounds.

Outside of the breeding season, these grouse are quiet and secretive. In the fall and winter, they form large flocks, often foraging together in deciduous trees. Their diet shifts dramatically by season: in summer, they feed on insects (primarily grasshoppers), succulent leaves, and seeds; during winter, they subsist almost entirely on the buds, catkins, and berries of woody plants like birch, aspen, willow, and serviceberry. Nesting occurs on the ground, typically in a shallow scrape hidden under a clump of tall grass or shrubbery, where the female incubates a clutch of 9 to 12 eggs.