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Species authority page

Lesser prairie-chicken

Tympanuchus pallidicinctus · Prairie grouse · Grouse · Upland game birds

Lesser prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus): 15-20 in; grouse barred brown and buff, paler and slightly smaller than Greater Prairie-Chicken. Displaying male shows purplish (not yellow) neck sacs. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Male lesser prairie-chicken displaying on a lek
Adobe Stock · Standard License (asset 421795541)
Scientific name
Tympanuchus pallidicinctus
Family
Phasianidae
Range
Southern Great Plains of the United States (Plains, Southwest and Texas regions); now uncommon and found in a few local concentrations after serious decline.
Biology

How to identify it

15-20 in; grouse barred brown and buff, paler and slightly smaller than Greater Prairie-Chicken. [1]

Displaying male shows purplish (not yellow) neck sacs. [1]

Best told from Greater Prairie-Chicken by range, since they do not overlap. [1]

Compared with the greater prairie-chicken: Greater is larger and darker with yellow-orange neck sacs and does not share the Lesser's range. [1]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Do not identify Lesser prairie-chicken from colour alone. Compare structure, size, range and the listed similar species before making a field decision.[1]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Sandy short-grass prairie with sand sage and bluestem, often near low shinnery (shin) oak stands. [1]

Visits grain fields but disappears where too much native prairie is converted to farmland. [1]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Males give a booming call on courtship display grounds; otherwise cackling and clucking notes. [1]

May move several miles daily from roosts to feeding sites; no regular migration, though some shift between summer and winter ranges. [1]

Eats seeds and leaves, oak leaves and acorns, waste grain in fall and winter, and many grasshoppers and beetles in summer. [1]

Regulatory handoff

Take status not established

North Ground has not established meaningful legal take of this species. That is a gap in the evidence, not a finding that it is protected or that it is open.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Southern Great Plains of the United States (Plains, Southwest and Texas regions); now uncommon and found in a few local concentrations after serious decline.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. National Audubon Society · reviewed 2026-09-30

    National Audubon Society