Family: Phasianidae, Pheasants and Grouse view all from this family

Description 16-18" (41-46 cm). A chicken-like bird, heavily barred above and below with grayish brown. Has short black tail. Male has yellow-orange air sacs inflated during courtship display, and long black feathers on sides of neck, erected into "horns" during courtship; horns of female are shorter. See Lesser Prairie-Chicken.

Endangered Status Attwater's Prairie-Chicken, a subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken, is on the U.S. Endangered Species List. It is classified as endangered in Texas. Once found from the Atlantic Coast west to Wyoming, the Greater Prairie-Chicken has been exterminated from much of this vast range, thanks to the destruction of the undisturbed prairies on which it breeds. The East Coast subspecies, known as the Heath Hen, is extinct. Attwater's, the form inhabiting the prairies along the Texas Gulf coast, may follow its eastern relative into extinction in a few years. The Attwater National Wildlife Refuge, in Eagle Lake, Texas, has been established to protect this rare bird.

Habitat Undisturbed tall-grass prairie.

Nesting 8-12 olive eggs, finely spotted and blotched with brown, in a well-concealed, grass-lined depression in the ground.

Range Resident locally in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, and from Manitoba south through Great Plains to Oklahoma; Attwater's found on coastal prairies of Texas.

Voice   Hollow "booming" call during display; also cackles and clucks.

Discussion Where they still survive, Greater Prairie-Chickens perform striking courtship dances on communal display grounds: the males strut about and stamp their feet, with "horns" erect and yellow-orange sacs of skin inflated on the sides of the neck, meanwhile uttering a deep cooing call that may carry a mile. They leap and whirl in the air, and threaten each other by short runs with tail raised, head down, and horns erect.