Birding Basics · Field Notes

Field Notes: Springtime Prairie-Chicken Viewing
By Mary Taylor Young

Two Male Prairie Chickens
Two Males Squaring Off

It’s amazing. It’s comical. It’s one of the outstanding spectacles of wildlife viewing in North America. It’s the courtship dance of the prairie-chickens and you’ve probably never seen anything like it.

Prairie-chickens are members of the grouse family—plump, chicken-like, ground-dwelling birds that live on Colorado's Eastern Plains. Rarely seen most of the year, they gather in spring on ancestral dancing grounds, called leks, to dance and court. They can be easily observed by diligent wildlife watchers willing to be in place for the show well before dawn.

Male and Female Prairie Chicken
Male and Female Praire-Chicken

As the sun comes up, prairie-chickens make their way onto the lek, a spot used by the birds for generations. Soon, the lek will be alive with wild chickens dancing and spinning. Bright orange or yellow pouches on their necks swell up like balloons, then deflate, filling the morning with wheezing pops that sound like a bagpipe band warming up. The birds erect feathers on their heads like horns and drum their feet on the ground, pivoting right and left like wind-up toys. The sight of dozens of birds pirouetting and wheezing is definitely in the ooh-aah category.

Early March through mid-May is the time to visit the only lesser prairie-chicken lek accessible on public land. It’s located about 12 miles east of Campo on the Comanche National Grassland. It’s a self-guided tour but reservations are required for the viewing blind, which holds four people. For information, directions and rules, visit the U.S. Forest Service's website. To register for the blind call the Carrizo Ranger District at (719) 523-6591

Sunrise
Sunrise

Prairie–Chicken Viewing Etiquette
Arrive well before dawn to be in the blind before the birds gather. There is only limited space in the blind so if it is occupied when you arrive, remain in your car and view from the parking lot to avoid disturbing the birds. Too much activity—movement, car doors slamming, noise—can flush the birds off the lek and disturb their mating.

Most of the greater prairie-chicken leks in northeastern Colorado are located on private property in the vicinity of Wray. The Wray Chamber of Commerce offers a series of chicken-watching weekends from late March through April. The one or two-night tour packages include accommodations, educational lectures and some meals, depending on the package. The highlight, of course, is the early-morning guided field trip to see the birds (don’t drink coffee before you go as there are no facilities at the lek). For information on costs and dates or to make reservations call the Wray Chamber of Commerce at (970) 332-3484 or register online.

Campo Lek Sign
Campo Lek Sign

New, this year, in cooperation with the Colorado Birding Trail is the Flagler Field Days event which will take place on April 14th and 15th. Tours will include greater prairie chicken viewing, local ranch and farm tours and overnight accommodations at the Prairie Trails Lodge and other area hostelries. Call Linda Loutzenhiser at 719-765-4676 or email her at linda.loutzenhiser@co.nacdnet.net for more information and reservations.