As the tallgrass prairie gave way to plow and farm, so did the habitat of the greater prairie chicken. Today, in the Flint Hills of Kansas, their numbers remain high due to the stands of magnificent prairie managed by ranchers and conservationists.

    The greater prairie chicken, Tympanuchus cupido, is a characteristic bird of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. It is related to the grouse and has a round, plump body with short legs and neck. They are large birds, weighing 2lbs. with a wingspan of 28 inches. They forage for seeds of native plants and eat numerous insects. Unlike other birds that may migrate to or through Konza Prairie, the greater prairie chicken will spend the whole year here in the Flint Hills.

    Male prairie chickens exhibit an intricate mating ritual on areas called "booming grounds" or "leks". The leks are usually located on elevated, droughty short-grass areas, such as hilltops or ridges, often the tallest point for about ¼ mile. The lek is divided up by the males into smaller areas, about 15 feet in diameter where one male will protect his territory. The dominant male will choose his area and defend it, with each successively subordinate male taking a less desirable spot, until the lek is full. Females often make several trips to different leks before they make their final selection.

    The males display by inflating the large orange air sacs on the sides of their neck, and give a muffled call that sounds like a "boom". Sibley* describes this sound "as a long hooting moan, oooa-hooooooom", lasting about 2 seconds. Along with the "booming" comes the display. They raise their tail and neck feathers (pinnae), bob their head, and stop their feet like mad. All the while the females are walking around the outside of the lek watching the performance.

    Greater prairie chickens thrive in the tallgrass prairies. Areas that are properly managed by burning, grazing and fencing of livestock are the most favorable for them. They utilize most of the habitats found in grazed tallgrass prairies, using the lightly grazed areas for nesting and heavily grazed areas as their "booming grounds".

    In the late 1800’s people were noting that the numbers of prairie chickens and other species were declining due to human causes, and maybe theses animals might play a greater role in the ecosystem. In the Hutchinson News, September 7. 1876, one person wrote: "A prairie chicken was killed a few days ago. In its crop was found the heads of one hundred grasshoppers. This was near sundown. At the same time the examination of a Plover or kill-dee’s crop discovered the heads of thirty hoppers. My neighbors say ten hoppers will eat one ear of corn per day. This being true the chicken has saved ten ears of corn and the plover three ears. And this on the supposition that they took only what were in the crops at sundown. I heard a sportsman boast a few days ago, that he had killed one hundred chickens already this fall. That is to say this gentleman has been the means of destroying the birds that would have destroyed hoppers that have eaten one thousand ears of corn in one day, or over eight bushels of corn per day or say sixty bushels of corn per week. Would it not be a good idea to let the birds live?"

    The original range of the greater prairie chicken stretched from Canada through North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas with smaller populations extending down through Oklahoma and Texas. Now their year-round populations are focused in parts of Kansas, the NE portion of Colorado, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. They are endangered in 15 states and provinces.

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