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From: mad@descartes.math.purdue.edu (Michael A. Dritschel)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: greater prairie chickens
Message-ID: <13209@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 22 Aug 90 16:51:44 GMT
Sender: news@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
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I live in a farmhouse surrounded by cornfields near West Lafayette,
Indiana (northwest part of the state).  This morning I saw a group of
birds that when startled, flew up out of the cornfield adjacent to the
yard and landed nearby.  They looked a lot like chickens from a
distance.  With a spotting scope I could make out quite a bit of
detail.  The plumage was a rich brown, the margins of the feathers on
the back and wings had dark margins with a lighter interior.  The
tails were short, rounded, and dark brown to almost black.  One of the
birds had a dark strip running down part of its neck.  They walked
about some in the yard and slowly made their way back into the corn
field.  So far the description fits that of the greater prairie
chicken.  However, the various bird books I have (eg. Peterson's for
the Eastern U.S.) say that these birds have a distinctive barred
pattern, especially across the breast, and this was not the case with
the birds I saw.  Looking in the 3 volume Audobon guide, the pictue of
the greater prairie chicken is the one that most closely matches what
I saw, again with the excepton noted.  Other questions I have
include whether a corn field (with 7-8 ft. corn plants) would be the
proper habitat for these birds.  Also, the range map in Peterson's
doesn't show them as being in this area, though the one in the Audobon
guide seems to include this part of Indiana.  Any comments from
observers more familiar with this species are appreciated.

Michael Dritschel                 mad@math.purdue.edu