Grouse Of The Great Plains

Vast landscapes, small bags and gruelling, solitary pursuits are the nature of the game when hunting grouse on the Great Plains, but Jarrod Spilger wouldn’t have it any other way.

- Jarrod Spilger

At first glance, the Great Plains of the United States appeared to be one vast desert of grass to pioneers in the 1800s. While much of that native prairie has long since disappeared to the plough, today’s modern traveller would likely be tempted to also make the same generalisation, seeing only a sea of corn, wheat, or pasture, depending on the region, as they speed across middle America in their air-conditioned cars.

However, those intimate with the Great Plains, such as farmers, ranchers, and hunters, know all too well that it is anything but an agricultural wasteland. Numerous gamebirds and animals call the Great Plains home, among them the plains grouse.

There are two main species of Great Plains grouse – prairie chickens and sharptails – and it will be these two species that I will focus on, since I am most familiar with them.

Sharptails, as their name implies, have pointed tails, rounded feather markings, feathered feet, and an overall whiter appearance, especially on their underside. By contrast, prairie chickens have squared-off tail feathers, brown barred feather markings, which give them a darker appearance, and bare yellow feet much like – you guessed it – a chicken.

Of the two, sharptails are much more widespread across western North America, with a range that extends all the way up to Alaska. Prairie chickens were historically more abundant throughout the Great Plains and were a major food source for settlers traveling west by covered wagon along the Oregon, California, or Mormon trails. For those unfamiliar with American geography, the Great Plains stretches from the Missouri River in the east to the foot of the Rocky Mountains in the west. The Great Plains states include North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and north-central Texas, along with portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.