53 Sharp-tail Grouse

• A group of Sharp-tailed Grouse are called a; Chorus / Covey / Drumming / Grumbling /  Leash.
• In the winter these are easily identified as the bird with winter boots.  They seem to have really long neck and a beautiful speckled breast.  
• They will burrow into snow drifts to make a quincy to keep warm.
• The native Americans call this bird the Fire Bird.  They are known to do well on ground ravaged by prairie fire.  Like old growth forest, prairie grassland needs to be refreshed by fire to allow new growth that many species depend on.  
• Their main source of food in the summer is the grasshopper.  It's my friend.
• There are 6 main subspecies, we see the Northern and the Prairie.
• They have a short tail with two rows of square deck feathers. The males have yellow plumage over their eyes.
• The Sharp-tailed Grouse mate in a lekking.  A courtship where males have a dance off, rapidly stamping their feet and ruffling feathers, to determining who will mate with the female in the middle of this rave.

•  The Sharp-tailed Grouse is Saskatchewan's Provincial Bird.  Funny I thought it was the Grasshopper.
• They are pecocial, meaning they are hatched with their eyes open and feed themselves by following mom to areas with lots of bugs, grasshoppers or seeds.
• The town of Ashern has put up a large statue of this bird being one of the towns main tourist draws for hunters who seek out this fast flying bird.

• Other animals that rely on new prairie growth that share the habitat are this group of Prong horn antelope we saw near Swift Current.