The sharp-tailed grouse is a shy North American bird -- shy of
humans, that is. Each spring, however, they congregate and choose their
mates. Brazenly, the males strut, hoot, drum their feet, and dance as
the females watch from lower ground. Sharptails return to the same
spot, called a lek, each year.
The gender of a sharp-tailed grouse can be determined by its head
feathers. A female's head feathers are striped with alternating black
and buff bands. A male's head feathers, on the other hand, are black
with buff edges. If it's mating season, sexing the sharp-tailed
grouse is even easier -- the males dance, and the females watch.
Tympanuchus phasianellus is made up of three subspecies:
The Columbian sharptail, found mostly in the Midwest; the prairie
sharptail, found mostly in the US wheat belt and the Rockies' rain
shadow; and the northern sharptail, found mostly in Canada. Habitat
diminishment, largely caused by the clearing of grasslands for
agriculture and tree plantations, has taken a sad toll on
sharptailed grouse populations in the latter half of the twentieth
century.
some data gleaned from the Minnesota Sharp-Tailed Grouse
Society