Greater Prairie Chickens
Dexter, Kansas
April 25, 2008

I was fascinated by the configurations the pinnae (horn-like feathers) assumed.
These "ear feathers" distinguish prairie chickens from other grouse. They are barely noticable on the females.

Prairie Chickens are strong flyers. And they can leap spectacularly.

Supplementary Pictures:

• We got settled in the blind before dawn. We heard the booming first, then we gradually saw activity.
• Mutual mooning.
• Get a load of the orange eye-combs on the leftmost bird.
• This bird is alert but not displaying.
• Whole field. I took this picture with a small camera with a 3x zoom.
• The following pictures were taken with my Bushnell binocular camera. That camera does not have an automatic focus. One can focus the binoculars but that does not translate to a focused photo: Different people will focus binoculars differently. It stands to reason that if the binocular focus affects the picture, all the pictures will not come out "focused." These are among my better Bushnell pics. The saving grace is that at least I have not taken my eyes off the birds while fooling with a separate camera.
  • Leap and flap.
  • Fierce! He was stomping his feet too.
  • Confrontation.
  • Eyeing one another sideways.
  • Hackles raised.

movie 1
movie 2

Return to:

Trip Report and Trip List
Overview of selected trip birds.

Birding Mexico 2007
Birding South Florida 2006
Birding Texas 2005
Birding Nantucket, annually, at New Year's
Birding Panama 2005
Birding Belize 2002
Birding Colorado 2001
Birding Ecuador 1999
Birding Trinidad 1998
Birding Peru June 1995
Herman's Birding Page

Herman's Home Page
Eva's Home Page

Most of the photos on this page were taken with my Canon Powershot S2 Digital Camera w/ 12X zoom lens.

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This page has been accessed times since June 22, 2008

Last revised: June 24, 2008