Illustration by Gerald Rapp & Cullen Inc./Laszlo Kubinyi
Sage Grouse
Centrocercus urophasianus
June 5, 1805, Marias River, Chouteau County, Montana.
Both sexes mottled gray-brown above with black belly. Male has long pointed tail, black throat, white breast, with elongated neck plumes flanking breast. Female's head, back, and breast uniformly barred. Length: male, 26-30 in (66-76 cm); female, 22-23 in (56-58 cm).
When flushed, a chickenlike cackling call. Males make bubbling sound during courtship.
Open country and sagebrush plains.
Resident from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan south to eastern California, Nevada, Colorado, and South Dakota.
Displaying male fans tail and tilts it forward; inflates pair of naked yellowish green air sacs in neck and breast.
