Colorado Grouse

There is no better place in North America for gallinaceous birds than the state of Colorado—and no better time of year to find them than in April. Our goal on our Colorado Grouse birding tour is to seek out the prairie-chickens (Lesser and Greater) of the eastern plains, the Sharp-tailed Grouse and two sage-grouse (Gunnison and Greater) of the intermountain parks, and the sometimes-difficult Dusky Grouse of the mountains and ridges. Sprinkled in there could be Wild Turkey, Scaled and Gambel’s quail, Ring-necked Pheasant, and the harder-to-find Northern Bobwhite. Weather permitting, we’ll also make an attempt to find the difficult White-tailed Ptarmigan, resident in high-elevation areas above treeline.

This trip might best be described as a “compare and contrast” tour. That is to say, we’ll be visiting distinctly different North American biomes, making it possible to encounter several closely related pairs or trios of birds in Colorado and adjacent states. Some of these are East-West differences, but others are more complicated: Gunnison vs. Greater sage-grouse; Lesser vs. Greater prairie-chickens; Say’s vs. Eastern phoebes; Eastern, Mountain, and Western bluebirds; Clark’s vs. Western grebes—and the list goes on.