Greater Sage-Grouse Facts

Greater Sage-Grouse Profile

Sage grouse were once considered the largest grouse species in North America. And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those pesky taxonomists placing turkeys into the grouse family and bumping them down a peg. 

Still, these large and beautiful animals, and their enormous tracts of land, are a sight to behold, while they last, on the unique sagebrush ecosystems they inhabit. 

Greater Sage-Grouse Facts Overview

The Greater sage-grouse is unsurprisingly the largest of the two sage-grouse species in North America. They’re chunky bois with some impressive breasts, and they’re not afraid to get them out for attention. This species gathers in large mating colonies in the Spring, plopping and flashing their chest sacs, trying to get it on. 

Their reliance on the sagebrush ecosystem is absolute, and this comes with some perks and drawbacks: the destruction of this unique habitat means the destruction of the grouse, but conservation efforts for this species stand a good chance of protecting many other organisms reliant on the sagebrush. 

They’ve declined significantly in the last hundred years, but the future of this pretty bird remains uncertain, and therefore hopeful.

Interesting Greater Sage-Grouse Facts

1. They’re in the turkey family

Grouse are in the Galliformes order, along with chickens and other fowl. Still, recent advancements in research have shown that turkeys are one of their closest relatives, sharing the Phasianidae family with grouse and pheasants. 

But the turkey and grouse are sister taxa, and it’s beginning to look like turkeys are, in fact, a species of grouse. 

The greater sage grouse is one of many in the family, native to North America. It’s the larger of the two species in the genus, the other being the Gunnison grouse, or, predictably, the lesser sage grouse. ¹

2. They’re one of the largest North American grouse species

And until turkeys were included, they were  the largest grouse in North America. The males and females look nothing alike; males sport a grey crown and yellow noses. They also have a stunning white ruff and very show-offy plumage in general.

They can weigh up to three kilograms and stand 75cm across. 

Females are smaller, more camouflaged, and generally prefer to hide themselves in the bush. ²

3. They’re fussy eaters

Adult and juvenile sage grouse have a very different diet. At the early stages, when protein is necessary for rapid growth, baby sage grouse gets swole on a diet of mostly insects. 

When they reach their genetic peak, they make the transition to herbivorous diet and focus mostly on forbs in the Summer, and sagebrush leaves and buds in the Winter. They refuse to eat rocks like many other birds, so they can’t break up seeds and nuts, which makes them particularly selective grazers, their diets spanning only a handful of species. 

In one study, 90% of their diets were composed of dandelion, sagebrush and two legume genera. Sagebrush makes up 71% of their diet year-round, making this a highly specialised species. ³

4. They Lek

Sage grouse breed in a strange way, too. Every season, there will be a huge gathering in which males show off their prowess to crowds of females. 

This begins in the early Spring with males seeking out and defending territories. Then, like a summer market, the females will show up and peruse these locations for appealing investments. The older and more experienced a male is, the better territories he usually has, and their performances will continue from March to May. 

Females drop by for just a couple of days, mate with their top choice, and then leave to make a best somewhere quieter. 

5. The males plop

The Greater sage-grouse is not the only species in which a nice pair of bulbous breast sacs are valued in a mate. But they are one of the few who use them in this manner. By inflating them and slapping them together, the male grouse creates an incredible acoustic phenomenon that appeals to the females 

By releasing air from his sacs, he makes a peculiar noise, that sounds like a guttural, watery “plop”. ⁴

6. They can fly

This species is largely sedentary, and cumbersome in appearance, but they can fly. In some particularly arid regions they might fly several miles to find water, but flying is a burden to an animal this fat, with such short wings, so they can’t go for long without getting exhausted. 

Females will also fly up to 20 miles to get away from all the plopping and the slapping breast sacs of a lek site once she’s mated. 

7. They’re in decline

Human cultivation of this species’ habitat has wiped out immense parts of its range. Wheat and potatoes are common culprits, and overgrazing has played a part, too. 

West Nile virus wiped out 25% of monitored individuals in 2003, and the removal of the unique sagebrush ecosystems is a continued threat to the species.

Assessments are well out of date by now, but as of 2016, it was thought there was a declining population of about 150,000 – down from 16 million around 140 years ago – adults and the species was listed as Near Threatened. ⁵

8. It’s likely an umbrella species 

The symbiotic relationships of this bird and its sagebrush flora mean that the destruction of one affects the prevalence of the other.

Conversely, protecting one also means protecting the other, and this species is closely associated with several species in its community that would also benefit from the conservation of the grouse. 

Greater Sage-Grouse Fact-File Summary

Scientific Classification

1. “Greater Sage-Grouse”, Audubon.
2. “Centrocercus urophasianus greater sage grouse”, Animal Diversity Web.
3. “Greater Sage-Grouse”, National Wildlife Federation.
4. Getty Images TV (2018), “The Dance Of The Sage Grouse”, YouTube.
5. “Sage Grouse”, IUCN Red List.