Category Archives: Doves & Chickens

Seen Last Week in Colorado

27 April 2025

Last week I missed an influx of migrating warblers that arrived in Pittsburgh but I saw a lot of birds and scenery in Colorado including 14 Life Birds.

Flowers: Colorado is very dry so most of the flowers we saw were small. The flower with the most pizzazz was the bright red Northern Indian paintbrush, above.

Our group totaled 17 people in two vans. The first van was a birding group from Switzerland, all of them photographers. Many birds were new to them so they took a lot of photos. Here we’re observing evening grosbeaks.

Observing evening grosbeaks, 23 April 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

We saw an old favorite from Pennsylvania, a nesting great horned owl with two chicks near the Utah border. (This is my own digiscoped photo. I am awaiting shared bird photos from the group.)

Great horned owl with two chicks, Mesa County, CO, 22 April 2025 (photo by Kate St. John)

Best sound was the low droning of the greater prairie chickens in Wray, Colorado. The recording below this Wikipedia photo was captured by our guide, Sue Riffe, where we observed them.

Greater prairie chicken booming and bowing at the lek (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

And of course there was spectacular scenery: Here are the captions and commentary for the slides below.

  • View of eastern Colorado from the air: Small distinct clouds make shadows on the dry landscape.
  • Scene near Fountain, Colorado: Dry land with a building and barbed wire fence. Lots of barbed wire in Colorado.
  • Perfectly formed isolated “lump” hills near Fountain, Colorado
  • Mesa with sandy erosion deposits that make it look as if the mesa was built by bulldozers and dump trucks.
  • Promontory at Coal Canyon Trailhead. A piece at the top is ready to fall. Watch out below!
  • Utah-Colorado border road. Utah is ungrazed on the left. Colorado is grazed by cattle on the right. At this site Utah has a lot more birds.
  • Meandering Arkansas River at Arapaho NWR.
  • Our group walks the prairie at Pawnee National Grasslands.
  • Sunrise at the greater sage grouse lek near Coalmont, Colorado.

It was a good trip and now I’m glad to be home. Onward to warblers!

Same Idea, Different Dance in Spain

Male little bustard (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

26 April 2025, Flying home

Last night was the end of the Grouse Lek Extravaganza in Colorado so today I’m flying home to Pittsburgh with memories of dancing chickens in my head.

By now you may think that North America is the only place where chickens dance, but I saw little bustards (Tetrax tetrax) in Spain last September who molt into breeding plumage in late winter and dance to impress the drab-colored ladies in March.

In spring, male little bustards assemble on the lek, puff their spiffy black and white necks, and perform a stamp, click, leap and tweet dance.

I wonder how he makes that Clicking sound.

Like the greater sage-grouse and greater prairie chicken, the little bustard is listed as Near Threatened because of habitat loss throughout its range. Though it breeds in Southern Europe and in Western and Central Asia …

Europe holds around 40% of the global breeding range, but may hold as much as 80-90% of the global population. … The European population is estimated to be declining by 30-49% in three generations (30.9 years).

IUCN Red List: Little bustard population assessment

See the little bustard’s range map at the link.

Everybody’s Favorite Dance

Sharp-tailed grouse (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

25 April 2025

25 April 2025: Grouse Lek Extravaganza with She Flew Birding Tours.
Day 7: Greater prairie chicken lek, Pawnee National Grassland, to Denver

Today is the last day of the Grouse Lek Extravaganza tour. In six days we’ve traveled more than 1,200 miles in Colorado to see all five dancing birds and, though we saw this one two days ago, I am saving the best dance for last.

Sharp-tailed grouse performing at the lek (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

When it comes to performances on the lek, Gunnison and greater sage-grouse are stately, dusky grouse are secretive, and prairie chickens are an audio experience. However, everybody’s favorite dance is the one performed by the sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). See if you don’t agree.

video embedded from Kevin Aitken on YouTube

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Tomorrow the Prairie

Greater prairie chicken booming and bowing at the lek (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

24 April 2025: Grouse Lek Extravaganza with She Flew Birding Tours.
Day 6: Greater sage-grouse lek, Colorado State Forest, Loveland Pass, to Wray

This morning we are up and out very early to see the greater sage-grouse lek, described here with video. Afterward we travel almost 400 miles: visiting sub-alpine habitat, crossing the Continental Divide at Loveland Pass, descending the Front Range to Wray, Colorado near the place where Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas meet.

Tomorrow we’ll see prairie birds in Wray and at Pawnee National Grassland. I can hardly wait to see these Life Birds:

For greater prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) their booming hum is just as important as the dance moves on the lek. Prairie chicken leks can be found from eastern Colorado and Kansas to North Dakota and western Minnesota. We will visit one near Wray. Sparky Stensaas recorded this one in Minnesota.

video embedded from Sparky Stensaas on YouTube
Longspurs: Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared

All longspurs have a long back toe (hallux) or “long spur” that gives them their name. Though lapland and Smith’s longspurs visited the Great Plains over the winter, they have left for their arctic breeding grounds while two other longspur species have stayed to breed.

Thick-billed longspurs (Rhynchophanes mccownii) like short grass prairie and perform their courtship dance above it in the sky.

In its striking aerial display, the male flutters upward to a height of about 10 m (32 ft) and then descends, teetering on outstretched wings held back to display the vivid white lining, with its white-and-black “T”-patterned tail fanned, and issuing a tinkling, warbling song.

Birds of the World: Thick-billed longspur

This bird used to be called McCown’s longspur.

The chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus) is relatively small. The colorful males perform an undulating flight display with a melodic song.

The male performs aerial song displays: flies upward, circles and undulates and, after peak of ascent, descends while singing, with its tail spread.

Birds of the World: Chestnut-collared longspur
Chestnut-collared longspur (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) is the State Bird of Colorado and a plentiful sparrow of the Great Plains.

For most of the year male lark buntings match the landscape but in March and April they begin to molt into striking black and white plumage and slowly migrating north. Males arrive a few days before the females; each male establishes a territory in what appears to be a colony, and begins its aerial displays. — paraphrased from Birds of the World: Lark Bunting

Lark bunting (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Endangered Dance

Gunnison sage grouse displaying in Gunnison County, Colorado, 26 March 2023 (photo by Larry Lamsa via Flickr Creative Commons license)

21 April 2025: Grouse Lek Extravaganza with She Flew Birding Tours.
Day 3: Gunnison sage-grouse lek, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Fruitgrowers Reservoir, to Grand Junction

The first grouse we’ll see on the Grouse Lek tour is the Gunnison sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus) a target species for many birders because it is listed as Endangered by the IUCN and its declining population contains only 1,770 to 8,000 adult birds. Ironically the species did not “exist” until 1995 when it was split from the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus).

From Colorado Parks and Wildlife[1]: “In the late 1990’s Colorado wildlife researchers found that the sage-grouse in the Gunnison Basin were unique from the sage-grouse found elsewhere. Named for its home range the bird is:

  • Two thirds (2/3) the size of the greater sage-grouse
  • Has more distinct white barring on its tail feathers, seen from behind during the strut
  • A yellow-green fleshy comb above each eye … and …
  • Long filoplumes that arise from the back of the neck and are tossed up and back during the strut.
  • It also has a completely separate range from the greater sage-grouse.

This map shows the current and the potential ranges both species might resettle if their numbers grew. “As of 2012 the Gunnison sage-grouse inhabited only 10% of its original range”[1].

Greater and Gunnison sage-grouse current ranges and past areas that grouse could resettle (map from USDA Forest Service)

Unfortunately the Gunnison sage-grouse is in trouble. It’s only found in seven isolated locations in Colorado and has one tiny population in Utah. Its range keeps shrinking.

In 2013 US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing it as Endangered but feedback from residents, ranchers, local governments, and the oil and gas industry did not want the land use constraints so for now it is listed as Threatened in the U.S.

Today our tour will see the birds from afar at a lek on the crest of a hill. We are privileged to see this endangered dance.

Learn more about the Gunnison sage-grouse in this video from High Country News.

video embedded from High Country News on YouTube

[1] Quotes with the footnote [1] are from a 2012 video by Colorado Parks and Wildlife on YouTube. That video also shows a captive breeding program that was conducted at least a decade ago.

Why a Lek? The Ladies Insist On It

Female greater sage-grouse watch the males perform on the lek (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

20 April 2025: Grouse Lek Extravaganza with She Flew Birding Tours.
Day 2: South and west to Gunnison, birding along the way.

Question of the Day: What is a lek and why do grouse do it?

“A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners with which to mate.” — Wikipedia definition of Lek Mating

Male greater sage-grouse on the lek (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Each species performs its unique song and dance, heavily influenced by female choice. Only the females’ favorite dancers get to mate so those are the traits passed to the next generation.

Let’s take a look at the courtship ritual of the most numerous grouse in the American West, the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Notice that his “song” is something like “blub… blub blub.” The ladies hear it and come to the lek.

Greater sage-grouse courtship display (video embedded from American Bird Conservancy on YouTube)

As males and females gather at the lek, the arrangement of individual birds within the arena changes as the strong males challenge and push away the weaker ones. The dominant males end up in the center, weaker ones on the edges (alpha-male is highest ranking, then beta-male, gamma-male, etc).

Greater sage-grouse lek diagram from Wikimedia Commons

After the males’ hierarchy is established the females mate with the dominant male(s) in the center. The ladies invite mating by facing away and tenting their wings.

May 2015 video embedded from PBS Nature on YouTube

Q: Why a lek?

A: The ladies insist on it.

On My Way to Look at Leks

Greater sage-grouse on the lek (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

19 April 2025: Grouse Lek Extravaganza with She Flew Birding Tours
Day 1: Flying to Denver

Though I’ve birded a lot in North America I’ve never seen sage-grouse or prairie chickens and I’ve never seen them courting at their leks. Today I’m filling that gap by joining She Flew Birding Tours for the Grouse Lek Extravaganza in Colorado 19-25 April.

Our tour will be on the road every day and ultimately span Colorado east and west. We’ll visit a wide variety of habitats and elevations from the prairies to mountains to basins. Snow on high and spring on the plains.

6-day route of the Grouse Lek Extravaganza, 19-25 April 2025 (screenshot from Google Maps)
Click on the image to see it in Google Maps

Since I have never been birding in Colorado I stand a chance of seeing 16 Life Birds, shown in the slideshow below.

(Slideshow photos are from Wikimedia Commons -except- all photos of Gunnison sage-grouse are by Larry Lamsa via Flickr Creative Commons license)

In the days ahead I’ll describe how leks work and show videos of the species doing their unique dances.

Tomorrow we head for the Gunnison Basin.

Pigeons Know 4-Letter Words

Rock pigeon closeup (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

16 April 2025

Nine years ago two studies of rock pigeon (Columba livia) brain power discovered that pigeons can tell the difference between a real 4-letter English word and a nonsense collection of four letters.

According to Science Daily,

In the experiment, pigeons were trained to peck four-letter English words as they came up on a screen, or to instead peck a symbol when a four-letter non-word was displayed.…

Eventually the four birds in the experiment recognized 26 to 58 real words and correctly labelled over 8,000 as non-words. 

Science Daily, Sept 2016: Bird brain? Pigeons have quite a way with words

Though they know a real 4-letter word when they see one, they don’t know what it means, so they can’t tell the difference between a good 4-letter word and a bad one.

If pigeons could speak they’d have fowl mouths.

Wild Bird Flu Update in PA

Snow Geese at Middle Creek, 4 March 2009 (photo by Kim Steininger)

11 February 2025

It’s been six weeks since hundreds of snow geese stricken with highly pathogenic (HPAI, H5N1) avian influenza were found dead and dying in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh and Northampton Counties on New Year’s Day.

By 24 January bird flu had killed 5,000 snow geese in Northampton County as well as raptors and scavengers including bald eagles and vultures and a snowy owl at Presque Isle.

Meanwhile the virus jumped from wild birds to an enormous commercial poultry farm: The first commercial poultry outbreak in PA since Feb 2024 was reported in Lehigh County on 27 January in a 50,000 commercial layer flock (egg farm). All commercial poultry facilities within a 10km (6.2 mile) radius have been placed under quarantine. (This is an example of why eggs are scarce and expensive.)

And so it comes as no surprise that the #1 location for snow goose migration in Pennsylvania — Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area near Kleinfeltersville — has been closed for the spring migration season.

The PA Game Commission announced ACCESS RESTRICTED AT MIDDLE CREEK on 3 February 2025.

HARRISBURG — Due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that is currently affecting many parts of the state, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is restricting public access at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, effective Tuesday.

With the continued warming trends and the anticipated arrival of snow geese to Middle Creek, this decision was made out of an abundance of caution for human and domestic animal health. 

Beginning Tuesday 4 February 2025, the following areas will be CLOSED to all public access:

  • Willow Point Parking Lot and Trail
  • Archery Range
  • Boat Launch
  • White Oak Picnic Area
  • All shoreline access of the lake, INCLUDING fishing

The Wildlife Drive remains seasonally closed, and an extended closure is possible.

Hiking trails (with the exception of Willow Point Trail and Deer Path Trail) and the Visitor Center will remain open during regular business hours, and all events will take place as scheduled. 

All visitors are reminded:

  • If you have pet birds, backyard domestic poultry, or connections with commercial poultry facilities, you are STRONGLY discouraged to visit during this time to minimize transmission risk. 
  • You are HIGHLY ADVISED to remain in your vehicles while observing wildlife from roadways. 

Please remember the public plays a critical role in wildlife health surveillance. Report sick or dead wild birds to the Game Commission by calling 1-833-PGC-WILD (1-833-742-9453).

PGC Press Release, 3 Feb 2025

Flocks at Middle Creek can contain 100,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans at the peak of migration. This is what it looked like 3 years ago in 2022. It’s easy to see how these birds could spread contagious diseases.

video embedded from PennLive on YouTube

While bird flu (HPAI) spreads during spring migration remember to:

  • Always observe wildlife from a safe distance.
  • Avoid contacting surfaces that may be contaminated with feces from wild or domestic birds.
  • Do not handle wildlife unless you are hunting, trapping, or otherwise authorized to do so.

UPDATE, 28 Feb 2025 via Post-Gazette: The snow goose death toll in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania is now at 5,000 –> and these are just the birds that people could see and count.

Every Pigeon Counts

Rock pigeon (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

10 February 2025

When you count birds next weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count eBird has a lot of advice on how to do it. There are pages and pages on how to be accurate but for me the easiest counting error to fix is this: Don’t forget to count non-native species.

At the end of every eBird checklist the app asks, “Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you were able to identify?”

  • “YES” means “I wrote down every species.”
  • It also means that during data analysis researchers can infer that “No other species were present.”

If you don’t include pigeons, house sparrows or starlings but you answer YES you have biased your results.

Observer selection bias occurs when the evidence presented has been pre-filtered by observers. … The data collected is not only filtered by the design of experiment, but also by the necessary precondition that there must be someone doing a study.

WIkipedia: Selection Bias

Some observer bias is hard to eradicate but this one is easy. YES there are pigeons on this light pole. Tell eBird how many.

Pigeons on a traffic light (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Don’t worry that they are non-native. eBird colors the map orange outside their native range. Your checklists update the rock pigeon (Columba livia) map worldwide.

Explore Species Maps: Rock Pigeon (screenshot from eBird, August 2022)

So remember to count all the birds you see and hear during the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Silhouetted pigeons (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Every pigeon counts!