This entry describes the Attwater's subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken. Males perform courtship displays, and females nest in prairie grass.
Its body is barred brown and white. During courtship, males raise long neck feathers and display yellow to orange combs above the eyes and an air sac on the neck.
Greater Prairie-Chickens inhabit North American grasslands. During breeding, males gather at communal display grounds and produce low-frequency booming calls. Their overlapping chorus advertises the males to potential mates, linking lek location to the surrounding acoustic environment.
Researchers recorded ten leks in Nebraska’s Sandhills during 2013 and 2014. They combined recordings with terrain, vegetation, weather and bird attendance to model chorus audibility. Greater background noise was associated with a smaller predicted audible area.
Predicted audible area increased with female attendance, humidity and air temperature. Chorus propagation therefore varied with social and atmospheric conditions as well as the display site itself. The acoustic space around a lek is part of its breeding setting.
IUCN Red List · Near Threatened · Global
The 2020 IUCN global assessment is Near Threatened. Following severe historical declines, conservation including habitat restoration and translocations has supported recovery in parts of the range. The Nebraska study adds the acoustic environment around leks to habitat-management considerations.