Justification This species qualifies as Vulnerable owing to a long-term and rapid population decline. Although most populations appear to have stabilized or increased since 1995, populations in north-east Texas and parts of Oklahoma have declined precipitously since 2005, and in south-east New Mexico since 2001. As the effects of drought and the increasing demand for both fossil fuel and renewable energy development (including wind and biofuels) continue to place remaining habitats at risk, the species is precautionarily retained as Vulnerable until positive trends have been sustained.

Family/Sub-family Phasianidae

Species name author (Ridgway, 1873)

Taxonomic source(s) AOU checklist (1998 + supplements), Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993)

Identification 40 cm. Plump, brown-barred gamebird. Yellow wattles of skin form eyebrow. In courtship, reddish-orange air-sacs on sides of neck inflated and neck-plumes (pinnae) erected. Female has shorter neck-plumes and barred tail. Similar spp. Sympatric with the Greater Prairie-chicken T. cupido in west-central Kansas, which is larger, darker and has yellow-orange air-sacs. Voice Light, bubbling call at leks rather than the low hooting of T. cupido.

Population estimate

Population trend

Range estimate (breeding/resident)

Country endemic?

20,000 - 40,000

decreasing

102,000 km²

Yes

Range & population Tympanuchus pallidicinctus occurs in west-central and south-west Kansas, south-east Colorado, the Oklahoma panhandle, southwest Texas panhandle (Permian Basin) and eastern New Mexico, USA, and historically perhaps southern Nebraska⁴. The current occupied range is a fragmented 64,000 km², only c.14% of the original^1,4. Recent population estimates are 20,000-40,000 in 2007, most occurring in Kansas^1,4.

Ecology: It originally inhabited mid-grass prairie with or without interspersed shinnery oak Quercus havardii or sand sagebrush Artemisia filifolia^2,4. It is now most common in dwarf shrub-mixed grass vegetation, sometimes interspersed with short-grass and, optimally with some portion (<25%) of the landscape in row grains as supplemental winter forage. Leks are usually on elevated areas with short vegetation^3,4. Breeding occurs from mid-March to late May⁴. Food comprises foliage, seeds, grain, insects in the warmer months and acorns in the south^3,4. Birds flock in late autumn and early winter, and feed in croplands⁴.

Threats Croplands have expanded since the late 19th century and complete conversion is now the principal threat^2,4; areas with more than 37% cultivated land are probably unsustainable². Intensive grazing reduces food and cover, and herbicides reduce shrub cover and acorn production³,4. Market hunting greatly reduced populations in the early 20th century⁴. Numbers declined more severely in the dust bowl of the late 1930s⁴, and significantly with droughts in the 1950s and early 1990s⁴. Today, recreational hunting is limited to Kansas and Texas and the conservative seasons produce an annual harvest of fewer than 1,000 birds⁴. In Oklahoma 39.5% of the prairie-chicken mortality recorded was due to fence collisions, while in New Mexico, this figure was 26.5 percent. The addition of tall structures (natural and manmade) to the prairie can reduce reproductive success⁵.

Conservation measures underway It is legally protected in all range states, and is being considered for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act⁴. Numbers of leks and attending males are monitored³. Reintroduction programs have failed in Texas and Colorado^3,4, primarily because of habitat shortages³. Some grazing regimes have been successfully manipulated, and croplands have reverted to roughly 2 million acres of grassland under Conservation Reserve Program and other private lands management schemes which has benefited several populations^2,3. Large areas of land habitat have been purchased by states and the Nature Conservancy and Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances are being implemented in Texas. Research has been conducted on its ecology and conservation which will facilitate the production of recovery plans. Miles of unneeded fences have been removed in parts of Oklahoma and Texas and a method has been developed to mark remaining fences to reduce mortality¹.

Conservation measures proposed Allow habitat regeneration, manage grazing to provide adequate cover and forage for prairie chickens. Continue to manage occupied habitats on private lands, and hasten progress towards effective management on public lands. Protect occupied habitats. Develop and promote effective incentives for land-owners to maintain populations. Continue monitoring leks and develop statistically robust methods of estimating populations from lek data. Regulate the construction of tall structures in or near lesser prairie-chicken habitats.

References Storch (2007). 1. Rogers (1997) 2. Hagen et al. (2002) 3. Hagen (2005) 4. Wolfe et al. (2007). 5. Pitman et al. (2005).

Further web sources of information

Audubon WatchList

Text account compilers Phil Benstead (BirdLife International), Jeremy Bird (BirdLife International), Aidan Keane (World Pheasant Association), David Wege (BirdLife International)

Contributors Roger Applegate (Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks), Grant Beauprez (New Mexico Department of Game and Fish), Dawn Davis (University of Idaho), Christian Hagen (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife), Eric Odell (Colorado Division of Wildlife), Randy Rodgers (Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks), Doug Schoeling (Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation), Heather Whitlaw (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department)

IUCN Red List evaluators Jeremy Bird (BirdLife International), Stuart Butchart (BirdLife International), Greg Butcher (National Audubon Society)

Recommended citation BirdLife International (2009) Species factsheet: Tympanuchus pallidicinctus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 9/2/2010

This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.

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