Birding Tour USA: Colorado – Lekking Grouse and Rocky Mountains

Colorado offers one of the most spectacular North American birding spectacles with the spring lekking season of several grouse species including the stunning Gunnison (Sage) and (Greater) Sage Grouse and the ever declining Greater and Lesser Prairie Chickens. Churring, gurgling, prancing males strut around their chosen lek, competing with other males to see who can get selected by a mate. While this trip is a more focus “chicken run” of sorts, there are plenty of other amazing bird species to be on the lookout for. These include a nice mix of both migrants and long staying species such as Black, Grey-crowned, and Brown-capped Rosy Finches, Barrow’s Goldeneye, American Dipper, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Pinyon Jay, Bald Eagle, and the list goes on and on! Both spring and fall migration in Colorado are amazing and we time this trip perfectly for the spring leks and arrival of spring migrants on their journey to breeding grounds. Along with the amazing bird and wildlife spectacles, are the wide assortment of fantastic habitats providing jaw-dropping scenery throughout the tour. From the stunning Rocky Mountains and rolling grass prairies to the cottonwood canyons and pine forests, the trip is never lacking a stunning view along the way. This great diversity of habitats provides us a refreshing new locale each day and with it a differing bird and wildlife community. The National Audubon Society and Colorado Birding Trail do a fantastic job here to help preserve the pristine habitats and help encourage folks to get out and experience nature with their birding festival in March and other community programs.

Greater Prairie Chicken is one of the many fantastic grouse species we should encounter on this tour.

This tour begins in the mile-high city of Denver, visiting its various pristine birding locations before heading west and up into the dizzying heights of the Rocky Mountains. Up here, the search is on for the tricky White-tailed Ptarmigan and rosy finches. We continue onwards for our first few leks of the trip and then head southwest to Grand Junction and Gunnison, birding along the way in hopes of seeing treats like Mountain Bluebird and Clark’s Nutcracker. From here we head east and into the lowlands and grasslands of southeast Colorado with a brief dip into Kansas for Lesser Prairie Chicken. We complete our large “chicken loop” of Colorado in the northeast corner at the Pawnee National Grasslands, a premier birding spot, with Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared Longspurs and Mountain Plover amongst the many targets.

This trip can be combined with our Texas Spring and Whooping Cranes Tour, which immediately precedes it, and with our Florida Peninsula and Specialties Tour following it.

Due to the extremely limited availability and access to some of the leks, this itinerary is subject to run in a slightly different order while still visiting all of the locations and destinations.