Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Wandering Albatross Molt
Wandering Albatross flying low over the water, it's long gray wings stretched out, white body held horizontal, pink beak
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Sharp-tailed Grouse on a Lek

A rare but wondrous display!
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
© Gerrit Vyn

During spring at Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota, male Sharp-tailed Grouse  - like the one pictured here - perform their elaborate mating dances on a matted patch of ground called a lek. They stomp their feet, extend their wings, and zip around the lek. Then, in an instant, they stop – stock-still. All this to impress the female grouse observing from the sidelines! This wondrous, strange display is rare. Throughout the world, very few species of birds, perhaps fewer than 100, use leks when breeding.  

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote®

Sharp-tailed Grouse on a Lek

Written by Todd Peterson

From a Conversation with Gerrit Vyn 

This is BirdNote!

[Display sounds of male Sharp-tailed Grouse]

It’s before dawn, this April morning, on a North Dakota prairie. Sitting quietly near a rise of ground, we begin to hear eerie whoops and cackling. [display sounds of Sharp-tailed Grouse] And then what sound like little motors running. [‘motor’ sounds made by the rattling of tail feathers while stomping very rapidly] 

At first light, we see the source of this otherworldly chorus: male Sharp-tailed Grouse performing their elaborate mating dances. The size of small chickens, they dance on a matted patch of ground called a lek. Together, they’re stomping their feet, extending their wings, and zipping around the lek. Then, at the same instant, they stop – stock-still. All this to impress the female grouse observing from the sidelines.

 [Mating display sounds of Sharp-tailed Grouse]

This wondrous, strange display is rare. Throughout the world, very few species of birds, perhaps fewer than 100, use leks when breeding.  

With oil and gas drilling and the conversion of grasslands to agriculture, habitat for Sharp-tailed Grouse is becoming scarcer and more fragmented. [brief cooing]

This morning, the Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota gives our birds a place to reenact their ancient ritual and begin the cycle of their lives anew. 

[Mating display sounds of Sharp-tailed Grouse]

To see videos, begin at birdnote.org.

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.  Mating display sounds of male Sharp-tailed Grouse [141142] recorded by Gerrit Vyn. 

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org    April 2014   Narrator:  Michael Stein

ID#    STGR-lek-01-2014-04-07 (subject to change)STGR-lek-01

Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, http://www.fws.gov/lostwood/lostwoodnwr.htm

Dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UdKiQ8iJXUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvoZkjuYD54

Video in super slow motion of males fighting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHudSNAtR2Q

Todd Peterson
Writer
Michael Stein
Narrator
Gerrit Vyn
Photographer
Support More Shows Like This
Tagsbreeding display habitat protection human disturbance Midwest North Dakota science grassland

Related Resources

Check out this video of Sharp-tailed Grouse dancing and drummingVisit Lostwood National Wildlife RefugeSharp-tailed Grouse – More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus)

Tympanuchus phasianellus

Sights & Sounds

Related Field Notes

February 7, 2019

Palm Cockatoos - Different Drummers

By BirdNote Gallery
Male Palm Cockatoos keep the beat during courtship, creating tools to make music!
March 16, 2016

Woodpeckers - Some of Nature's Finest Drummers

By BirdNote Gallery
Yikes! What's that bird doing, pounding on my house?

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy