Sage Grouse
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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Sage Grouse | image = Sagegrouse21.jpg | image_width = 250px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Aves | ordo = Galliformes | familia = Tetraonidae | genus = Centrocercus | binomial = Centrocercus urophasianus | binomial_authority = (Bonaparte, 1827) | binomial2 = Centrocercus minimus | binomial2_authority = Young et. al., 2000 }} The Greater Sage Grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, is a large grouse. Adults have a long, pointed tail and legs with feathers to the toes. Adult males have a yellow patch over the eye, are greyish on top with a white breast, a dark brown throat and a black belly; two yellowish sacs on the neck are inflated during courtship display. Adult females are mottled grey-brown with a light brown throat and dark belly.
The breeding habitat for the Greater Sage Grouse is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. They nest on the ground under sagebrush or grass patches.
Sage Grouse are notable for their elaborate courtship rituals. Each spring males congregate on leks and perform a "strutting display". Groups of females observe these displays and select the most attractive males to mate with. Only a few males do most of the breeding. Males perform on leks for several hours in the early morning and evening during the spring months. Leks are generally open areas adjacent to dense sagebrush stands, and the same lek may be used by Sage Grouse for decades.
The Gunnison Sage Grouse, Centrocercus minimus, is almost identical in appearance but about a third smaller in size, with much thicker plumes behind the head and a less elaborate courtship dance. It is restricted in range to southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, with the largest population residing in the Gunnison Basin region in Colorado.
Both species are permanent residents. Some move short distances to lower elevations for winter. These birds forage on the ground. They mainly eat sagebrush, also insects and other plants. They are not able to digest hard seeds like other grouse.
The numbers of both species are declining due to loss of habitat; their ranges have shrunk in historical times, having been extirpated from British Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.
The Sagehen is the mascot of the Pomona College and Pitzer College athletic teams (Claremont, CA).
Members of both species are also known as the Sagehen, Sage Chicken or Sage Cock.
References
- J. R. Young, C. E. Braun, S. J. Oyler-McCance, J. R. Hupp and T.W. Quinn, "A new species of sage-grouse (Phasianidae : Centrocercus) from southwestern Colorado", Wilson Bulletin. 112(4):445-+, 2000.