California
Centrocercus urophasianus   1-Blair Parrot, BLM-CA Surprise Field Office 2-Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles, California Academy of Sciences | |
| Type of Animal: | Birds |
|---|---|
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Galliformes |
| Family: | Phasianidae |
| Federal Status: | BLM Sensitive |
| State Status: | |
| Occurrence: | |
| Habitat: | Sagebrush,Mountains,Foothills |
| Description: | The sage grouse is a large, ground-dwelling, chicken-like bird, up to 30 inches long and two feet tall, weighing from two to seven pounds. It has a long, pointed tail with legs feathered to the base of the toes. Their mottled brown, black and white coloring serves as a camouflage from predators. The males are larger and more colorful than females, and they have a black throat and bib, white feathers along the sides of the neck, and a large white ruff on the breast. Males also exhibit two large, frontally directed air sacs of olive-green skin and yellow combs. Both are inflated during breeding display. The sage grouse is found on open sagebrush plains from 4,000 to over 9,000 feet in elevation. It is omnivore, eating soft plants, primarily sagebrush, and insects. It is almost completely reliant on sagebrush, using it for roosting cover and food during much of the year. These birds cannot survive in areas where sagebrush no longer exists. Sage grouse may disperse up to 100 miles between seasonal use areas, but average individual movements are generally less than 21 miles. During the spring breeding season, male sage-grouse gather together and perform courtship displays on display areas called leks (also known as "drumming grounds"), which are relatively open sites and often surrounded by denser shrub-steppe cover. Males defend individual territories within leks, strutting with tails fanned and emitting plopping sounds from the air sacs on their chests to attract females. Some leks are used for many years. Females lay a clutch of 7-8 eggs from mid-March to mid-June. Sage grouse hens raise one brood in a season. The average life span of sage-grouse is 1 to 1-1/2 years. However, they have been found to survive up to 10 years in the wild. In the evening until early morning, they roost on the ground. Approximately half of sage-grouse mortality is caused by predators, including raptors, badgers, ravens and ground squirrels (that eat the eggs). In the summer sage-grouse depend on sagebrush for shelter from predators, while the grass and plants under the sagebrush provide materials for nesting and high-protein insects for food, a critical diet for chicks in their first month of life. In winter, over 99 percent of their diet is sagebrush leaves and buds. - Description courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| Effort: | |
| References: | |
| Other Sites: | Greater sage-grouse (USFWS) "Looking at leks" (BLM-California News.bytes Extra) |
| Field Office(s): | Bishop; Eagle Lake; Hollister; Redding; Surprise |