While driving through the Flint Hills of Kansas, I saw what I thought was a fat pheasant flying across the road. Most likely, it was a prairie chicken.
From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
A grouse of open grassland, the Greater Prairie-Chicken is known for its mating dance. Males display together in a communal lek, where they raise ear-like feathers above their heads, inflate orange sacs on the sides of their throats, and stutter-step around while making a deep hooting moan.
The tiny town of Cassoday, Kansas in Butler County, population 95, touts itself as the Prairie Chicken Capital of the World.
Prairie chickens were once numerous throughout the North American continent, but are now confined to the Great Plains.
About those pheasants: Natives of Eurasia, pheasants are contributing to the struggles of the prairie chicken. Pheasants sometime lay their eggs in a prairie chicken nest, the pheasant hatchlings will emerge first, and the female hen will abandon her nest, believing her job is done. However, since they are not being warmed by a sitting hen, the prairie chicken hatchlings usually die inside the egg.
Related posts:
My Kansas Kronikles: Chase County Courthouse
My Kansas Kronikles: Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church
My Kansas Kronikles: An overview
My Kansas Kronikles: This has to stop
My Kansas Kronikles: The Sunflower State
My Kansas Kronikles: The Flint Hills
My Kansas Kronikles: Alan Clark's filling station in Eskridge
My Kansas Kronikles: A taste of home
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