Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)

Of Grouse and Gizzards

December 10, 2022 During winter, the Greater Sage-Grouse is wholly reliant on its namesake species — sagebrush — for both shelter and for food. Scientists call this bird "sagebrush obligate," meaning it needs this plant to survive. In the spring, its diet shifts to insects and plants, as it gets ready for

How to Be a Better Wildlife Photographer

June 15, 2022 Conservation photographer Noppadol Paothong says that if you go out to take pictures of birds, you shouldn’t just aim to take an eye-catching photo. He spends long hours in photo blinds, often watching and studying birds rather than photographing them. He has become deeply familiar with

Grouse After Fire

November 3, 2020 The 2020 wildfire season burned more than 8 million acres in the West, including some of the most important habitat for the Greater Sage-Grouse in Washington State. Ashley Ahearn visited a lek she’d seen in the spring with biologist Michael Schroeder to understand the scope of the damage

Call of the Sage-Grouse

October 20, 2020 In the Red Desert of Wyoming, Erik Molvar takes us up close and personal with a Greater Sage-Grouse mating site, known as a lek. “Anybody who’s ever been to a singles bar will recognize this scene,” Erik says. “The males are puffing out their chests, strutting around, trying to catch the

An Annual Trek to a Lek

October 13, 2020 Matt Holloran has been studying Greater Sage-Grouse for more than 20 years, assessing how oil and gas extraction affects them. His favorite lek, or mating site, is an important place for Matt. He and his wife met here doing research. They named their first daughter Sage. Over the years, he

Wewa and the Grouse

October 6, 2020 Wilson Wewa, an elder of the Northern Paiute tribe of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, remembers the first time he saw a sage-grouse lek … hearing their otherworldly sound. “As a little boy of about five or six years old, I got scared!” Wewa says. “I didn’t know what it was.” [Hear

Sage-Grouse Two Step

October 1, 2020 Jordan Rabon and Tracey Johnson are researchers at Rinker Rock Creek Ranch in Idaho, and they study how this threatened bird interacts with cows. As part of their work, they capture and band the grouse, and they have an unusual way of gathering data. They use … a boombox. “It just kind of

Vanishing Sagebrush

September 22, 2020 Caleb McAdoo, Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist, takes us on a tour through disappearing sagebrush country. The Martin Fire, the biggest wildfire in Nevada state history, burned through 435,000 acres in 2018. After fires, sagebrush has to contend with a faster growing plant

Hornaday's Bird

September 18, 2020 There used to be millions of Greater Sage-Grouse across the West, but the birds’ numbers have been in decline since settlers arrived from the East. Today, scientists and environmentalists are sounding the alarm about the shrinking population, but they aren’t the first to do so. In 1916

Grouse Tracking

September 15, 2020 Biologist Michael Schroeder and journalist Ashley Ahearn scour the freshly fallen snow for the footprints of Greater Sage-Grouse in rural Washington State. With fewer than 1,000 of the birds left in the state, they are a rare sight. Learn more about the history of the most controversial

Saving the Gunnison Sage-Grouse

January 5, 2015 The Gunnison Sage-Grouse is one of the rarest birds in the United States. It was only recently acknowledged as its own species, separate from the Greater Sage-Grouse. In November 2014, it was listed as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act. The striking males are consummate

Sage-Grouse Lek and Grasslands

March 16, 2013 At a display area, known as a lek, the male Greater Sage-Grouse perform for mating rights, while the smaller females look on. Today, the Greater Sage-Grouse is seriously endangered, its fate intertwined with the loss of sage habitat. Millions of acres have been converted to cropland, and

Landowners Help Endangered Sage-Grouse

January 18, 2012 When it comes to saving endangered species, habitat is nearly always critical. For this Greater Sage-Grouse, a bird now endangered in parts of its range, it comes down to preserving stands of healthy sagebrush. And essential to saving sage habitat is the cooperation of landowners. Recently