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The Greater Prairie-Chicken
Tympanuchus Cupido
(March 24-25, 2007)
By Lukas Padegimas
Far beyond my
expectations, the Greater Prairie-Chicken became my
favorite bird as soon as I first saw one in Prairie
Ridge State Natural Area, Illinois.
On March 24th
and 25thof 2007, our group of nine people
lead by a great birders, Larry Richardson and Jan
Auburn, set out from North East Ohio all the way to
Illinois. At about 5:00am, our little group
separated and went into two blinds. As the sun
began to rise, so did the male Greater
Prairie-Chickens! They started coming into an open
area less the 300 feet from our blinds. The
territories were established within moments and all
of the males were just hoping that they would be
lucky enough to have a female Greater
Prairie-Chicken by his side.
Because the weather
had reached about 80 degrees the day before, the
females would probably stay longer then expected. By
the time the females came, around 17 male chickens
were out “booming”.
The behavior of the
male Greater Prairie-Chicken when booming is a
really fascinating sight. The male would raise up
his behind and bow really low while expanding his
air sacks, raising his ear tufts, and spreading out
his wings. Then, the booming sound would be heard.
The sound was not a low boom, but it was somewhere
in the middle range of the music scale.
One by one three
females showed up to impress the males. One of the
older female chickens even pecked a younger chicken
because she wanted to hang out with the dominate
male. The males were also ready to fight for one of
the hot ladies too. Yet, three females were not
enough to suit 17 males. But, as much as the males
were booming, the females decided that it was too
early to get things rolling, so they traveled around
the open area and “flirted” with different males
before moving on. Naturally, the males would be
following the females and one even put her under his
wing before she left his territory.
Then, a hilarious
incident occurred! A younger male was trying to
impress one of the ladies with his booming. He
accidentally backed into a hostile older male’s
territory and the older male pecked him right in his
behind. All of a sudden, the air sacks deflated, the
ear tuffs went down, and the young chicken started
running down the field for his life and bawking like
anyone would expect a chicken to do. Everyone in the
blind was laughing at this priceless sight. I
believe that I will never forget this scene.
Eventually, the lady chickens left and the males
stared at each other at their territorial boundary
lines and some harmless “fighting” occurred.
Greater
Prairie-Chickens were generally found from the east
coast to the Rocky Mountains, yet disappeared as
prairie land was turned into farms. Some areas in
Illinois still hold Greater Prairie-Chicken
populations as well as Nebraska, Wisconsin, and
several other states. I never had a bird fascinate
me as much as the Greater Prairie-Chicken has.
Page last updated on
Thursday July 24, 2008
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