Mornings in the sandhills of Nebraska are lively…well, at least when you’re near a lek or courting area for the Prairie Chicken. The colorful males work hard to show their stuff, trying to attract a female, while also battling it out with other males that might try to encroach their small plot of turf.
It is hard to imagine that this vibrant bird was once extremely abundant throughout the grasslands. My home state of Iowa had loads of them…tens of thousands…and across the plains, they numbered in the millions in the 1800’s. Hunting pressure and habitat loss almost wiped them out by the 1930’s. Conservations efforts have helped to at least preserve remnants of them…and the sandhills of Nebraska, unadulterated by agriculture remain a stronghold for them today.