Colorado: Lekking Grouse

Day 1: The tour begins at 6:00 p.m. at our hotel near Denver International Airport. Night in Denver.

Day 2: We’ll depart early for the foothills outside Denver, where we may see three species of nuthatch, Mountain and Western Bluebirds, and Williamson’s Sapsucker. If the weather cooperates, we’ll make our way to one of the high mountain passes in an attempt to locate the difficult-to-find White-tailed Ptarmigan, still white at this season. During some years rosy-finches linger into April, and occasionally we’re lucky enough to see all three species. In the afternoon we’ll have a few hours’ drive through spectacular mountain scenery before crossing Monarch Pass and dropping into Gunnison. Night in Gunnison.

Day 3: For our first grouse morning we’ll visit a lek of Gunnison Sage-Grouse. This highly localized bird was only recognized as a full species in 2000, and visits to the lek site are strictly regulated. We’ll absorb the ritual dance-displays of these wild looking grouse, and then we’ll head west out of Gunnison to the breathtaking Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, where we’ll search for Dusky Grouse, Fox Sparrow, and others. Along the way we’ll pass the Blue Mesa Reservoir, which could harbor Barrow’s Goldeneye and other waterfowl. Night in Gunnison.

Day 4: If we haven’t encountered rosy-finches yet, we’ll head up to nearby Crested Butte where all three species can be found. From there we’ll meander our way east through the mountains, enjoying majestic scenery and stopping to look for Pinyon Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, and others. We’ll then arrive to the Canon City area in search of arid-loving species such as Juniper Titmouse and Rufous-crowned Sparrow. Night in Canon City.

Day 5: We’ll continue the next morning in our explorations of the dry brushlands looking for Scaled Quail, Canyon Towhee, Canyon Wren, and Curve-billed Thrasher before starting a long drive for Kansas. We’ll take a few stops along the way looking for Clark’s and Western Grebes and huge numbers of migrating waterfowl, while impromptu stops could yield migrating Mountain Plover, flocks of Chihuahuan Ravens, or interesting raptors. Night in Hays, Kansas.

Day 6: This morning we will visit a blind for Lesser Prairie-Chicken, a species that has undergone dramatic population declines across its already limited range. We’ll arrive early to the blinds and observe these handsome birds court while being serenaded by Western Meadowlarks. We’ll make our way north for the afternoon enjoying spring unfolding on the prairies. Night in McCook, Nebraska.

Day 7: Thanks to the help of the Red Willow County Visitors Bureau in McCook, we’ll witness sunrise at a Greater Prairie-Chicken lek. We’ll likely hear the eerie calls that accompany the magnificent dance of this species even before we can make them out in the dim light, with the tinkling of Horned Larks in the dark sky above. After the birds have finished displaying, we’ll head west for Fort Collins, taking a short birding break in the renowned and expansive prairies of Pawnee National Grasslands. Night in Fort Collins.

Day 8: We’ll have a flexible morning to look for any rarities in the Fort Collins area before we start to work our way over the mountains to Cameron Pass; we could even return to the Pawnee Grasslands if birding conditions are favorable. Rock Wren, Pygmy Nuthatch, Northern Pygmy-Owl, and American Three-toed Woodpecker are some of the birds we may see along the very scenic drive. Any feeders on the west side of the pass will be our afternoon goal, with rosy-finches, Pine Grosbeak, and Cassin’s Finch all possible. In the mid-afternoon we’ll make the drive to our hotel in Walden. Night in Walden.

Day 9: We’ll rise early to witness the extraordinary display of the largest North American grouse, Greater Sage-Grouse. As we watch the lek, we’ll pay particular attention to the plumage and behavior that distinguish this species from Gunnison Sage-Grouse we observed at the start of the tour. After leaving the lek, we’ll spend the rest of the day exploring the nearby wetlands and sagebrush flats of North Park, where Sage Thrashers might already be in residence. We may see the courtship of newly arrived Cinnamon Teal and American Avocet, and perhaps lingering winter birds like Rough-legged Hawk and Northern Shrike. We’ll also look for Moose as Walden is reputed to be the Moose capital of Colorado. Wolves are also known to be in North Park. Night in Steamboat Springs.

Day 10: We’ll have an early start to search for Sharp-tailed Grouse, one of the more difficult of the “chickens” on this tour. With some luck we’ll witness the wonderful foot-stomping display of this species. If the weather conditions will allow for it, we’ll may want to make another attempt for White-tailed Ptarmigan and any remaining rosy-finches we may still need. Because early spring weather in Colorado can be unpredictable, we may be unable to reach the snowy, high-elevation ptarmigan country; in that event, we’ll spend one last afternoon birding the foothill forests or some of the many fine reservoirs or migrant traps along Colorado’s Front Range. We’ll make our way southeast, arriving in Denver in the late afternoon. Night in Denver.

Day 11: The tour concludes this morning in Denver.

2026 Narrative

IN BRIEF: One of my best Colorado runs yet, an early spring favored the return of many spring migrants making for a larger than normal species total than what we typically get. Coming in at 153 species, this is the largest bird total we’ve had in 18 years of running this tour! However I was actually somewhat apprehensive of the early spring and nice weather as Rosy Finches can be pretty hard to get after spring breaks. However, “luck” was with us, and the day we tried for the Rosies, a gnarly snowstorm had cropped up, and that brought the finches back into the feeders where we enjoyed great views of over a hundred Brown-capped Rosies, and a rather handsome Black Rosy Finch! 

Of course, the stars of this show are the various lekking grouse species. Our first encounter was the highly endangered Gunnison Sage-Grouse. While distant from our blind, these birds gave us a delightful show in some beautiful morning light. We then traveled to Kansas where we had front row seats to the utterly charming Lesser Prairie Chickens and their cooperative displays. From there, we popped up into Nebraska where the Greater Prairie Chickens took center stage. Rolling back into the Colorado mountains, we found ourselves enjoying the surreal display of Greater Sage Grouse, looking like some kind of turkey-angel hybrid in the glowing morning light. And for our final act, we traveled to the rolling grass plains of northwest Colorado where we marveled at the dynamic display of Sharp-tailed Grouse, who are perhaps the most active dancers with wings akimbo, they twirl and stomp and hoot to impress a lovely lady grouse into creating the next generation of grouselings. 

But this tour is so much more than just the grouse (though that would be more than enough!). Other avian highlights included a near constant stream of Mountain Bluebirds and Black-billed Magpies flying up from the roadside;  rare shorebirds like Mountain Plover and Long-billed Curlew; Delightful treats of both Burrowing Owls and a pair of Northern Pygmy Owls at the nest. scoping marshes and reservoirs for goodies like Eurasian Wigeon, White-fronted Geese, Franklin’s Gulls and displaying Western and Clark’s Grebes; traversing the prairies where we enjoyed birds like Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared Longspurs; and exploring the mountain conifer forests and rushing river canyons for birds like American Dipper, Golden Eagle, Prairie Falcon, Clark’s Nutcracker, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks. Of course, it's not just the birds on this tour- the charismatic megafauna is worth the trip itself! Every day we had great looks at animals like Mule Deer, Elk, Pronghorn, Bison, Coyote and Bighorn Sheep. And all set along some of the most scenic backdrops the North American continent has to offer! 

IN DETAIL: I’m still feeling a little emotional from the wonderful run we had for the 2026 WINGS Lekking Grouse tour. Everything ran so smoothly, and even when marred with some van tire issues, that too was resolved with a grace that made this tour carve out a forever special memory I’ll carry for a long time. It's only now as I reflect back on the tour, that I realize the secret that makes for a true success of the Colorado chicken tour, and that is a sense of community. It's quite the thing to pile all these birders into a couple of vans and drive for over 2000 miles in just under two weeks. Close quarters, long days, so much sitting in the cold at O-dark thirty in the morning that we, both participant and tour leader must just embrace this madcapped adventure we are engaged in and in doing so, become this merry traveling band of adventurers whose world becomes this bubble of birds wrapped in the Detroit steel of our vans, carrying us over the tallest of mountains and the widest of prairies. And in doing all of this, we become this impromptu village, one where we are all counting on one another for support and entertainment and be ourselves; fellow nature lovers who get to marvel at some of the most amazing bird rituals there are in the world to bear witness to- Prairie Chickens and Sage Grouse coming together in their communities to dance and continue these bonding rituals that so many living creatures share on this little delicate globe of rock, water and air called Earth. 

We came together in Denver Colorado, and I was amazed as in the several years of running this tour, I had never seen such an early spring unfolding on the plains. Trees had leaves, the first round of flowers were blooming, and most importantly, bird migration had begun in earnest. After the obligatory introductory meeting at the first night’s hotel, we then headed for our first meal closeby, a decent grill where we could get a good dinner, and get to know one another in a more comfortable setting. Good food and good conversation always do so much to set the mood, and even though our trip was in its infancy, I could already tell this was a delightful group of people who were already excited to get out there and see the wildlife and habitats of this corner of the world. 

We got going the next day at a modest time; we had more than enough super early mornings in our near future, no need to add to them, but by 8am, we were rolling into our first birding destination, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. But what a difference a day makes when it comes to the weather. After days of spring-like conditions, a gnarly north wind had blown up and temps had dropped to something a little shy of “comfortable”... While we did enjoy seeing the numerous species of ducks that could be found on the refuge, we found we had to pick them out of the wave troughs as the wind was blowing so hard that (no joke!), there were little whitecaps on these shallow marshy ponds that made birding something less than pleasant. More enjoyable to look at was our first taste of the charismatic megafauna that the American West is so renowned for. Herds of Mule Deer were omnipresent, as were numerous Black-tailed Prairie Dog towns. We saw a couple of lanky Coyotes moving across the prairie, and most exciting was the herd of American Bison that inhabit the refuge.

We left the refuge after a couple of hours, and began our first descent up the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Here the effect of the wind was somewhat moderated depending on what side of the mountain we were on, but as we gained elevation, snow began to fall. Normally I loathe snow as I drive into the mountains but I was hopeful that this would help our cause in bringing the most important secondary tier of birds in, the flocks of Rosy Finches that spent the winter here at mid-elevations. Rosys had been scarce for a few weeks now, the mild winter and early spring hadn’t really brought them in with any kind of numbers or regularity. I would be lying if I didn't say I was nervous we might miss this special group of birds for the tour. But the wintery conditions were a godsend this time and we pulled right up to multiple private feeding stations in the village of Wildernest that had robust flocks of Brown-capped Rosy-Finches furiously feeding away. We were also lucky to get nice looks at a handsome Black Rosy Finch in with them- who ever thought putting  black and pink together on a bird like that was obviously doing their job right! The feeders were pretty bumping with other birds and we had great looks at Pine Grosbeaks, Cassin’s Finches, Mountain Chickadees, Pygmy Nuthatches and Gray-headed Juncos.

Again, we had to tear ourselves away so we would have time to make one final stop in the town of Buena Vista to look for a most glamorous bird, a wintering Lewis’s Woodpecker. Along the way, we had to make an emergency pull over on the side of the road for a flock of Pinyon Jays that bombed over the road, but sadly they just kept rolling across the landscape and quickly disappeared. Once we got to Buena Vista, it took a little bit of searching through the neighborhood to locate the Lewis’s Woodpecker, but on such a driving intense day everyone was glad to stretch their legs a bit. We had a nice walk, picked up our only Sharp-shinned Hawk of the tour, and of course, when we got back to where we parked, there was the Lewis’s Woodpecker!  Full of good birds and good vibes, the group settled in to complete the long and beautiful drive to the mountain town of Gunnison, where we would make our base for the next two days. 

For our first day of birding, Gunnison, we had a reasonable rise time and breakfast to counter the previous long day, and then headed up a nearby mountain river canyon to look for forest birds. It wasn’t the birdiest morning ever, but we had plenty of delightful sightings all the same. Very exciting was a pair of Golden Eagles that kettled right over our heads! American Dippers bobbing along in the river. Other notable birds included Golden & Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Black-billed Magpies, Townsend’s Solitaire, Gray-headed Juncos, and Mountain Bluebirds. And then we encountered another prize for the morning, a Prairie Falcon flying down the canyon! We then broke to return to Gunnison for lunch and a little bit of a break, and then headed back out for some late afternoon birding. We worked Cottonwood riparian flats, and looked at a reservoir, and rolled around on the sage brush hills. We had more Golden Eagles, lots of ducks including Cinnamon Teal and Ring-necked Ducks, some Bonaparte’s Gulls and a really nice study of “Slate-colored” Fox Sparrow. 

The following day was our first lek day! We got up early and headed out to a willow flat where a modified trailer had been set up so we could witness the ancient ritual of the endangered Gunnison Sage-Grouse gathering and display to attract a mate. Due to their endangered status, precautions are high for these birds, and the blind is distant from the actual lek. Still, it is thrilling to see these birds with their spiky tails strutting around. With a scope one can see the longer flowing black crest that separates the species from its look-alike Greater Sage-Grouse. As the sun got higher over the sagebrush clad hills, the grouse slowly departed and eventually it was ok to leave the blind and head back to town for a well-earned hearty breakfast! 

Afterwards, we packed up our gear, and started to work our way off the Gunnison Plateau. Birding the cemetery at the edge of the town we had an excellent look at a Great Horned Owl along with some Cassins’s Finches. We then cruised over the Monarch Pass and dropped back down in a warm valley where we spent the rest of the afternoon birding. Here among the Ponderosa Pines and rocky cliffs we had some great bird sightings like White-throated Swifts, Bushtits, side-by-side comparisons of Rock and Canyon Wrens, more Golden Eagles, a flock of Pinyon Jays with a Clark’s Nutcracker! We explored this gorgeous canyon that was a little light on birds, but the scenery was worth the visit alone. We then stopped at a lake where we had a couple of interesting waterfowl- a pair of Barrow’s Goldeneyes. Upon closer inspection it became apparent that the male of the pair was a hybrid with a Common Goldeneye; the bird showing characters of both species of goldeneye! We then rolled down the Arkansas River through a gorgeous red rock canyon, where we had yet another flock of Pinyon Jays and our first herd of Bighorn Sheep, and arrived to Canon City where we would spend the night. 

On our fourth day, we awoke near our furthest points south. Here the bird life took on a distinct flavor of the southwestern deserts. We headed down to a region of arid rocky juniper scrub and grassy rangeland and cruised around finding some of the interesting denizens of this habitat. The most exciting find was that of a flock of Scaled Quail that amazingly stuck around long enough for everyone to get looks and even some photos of them before scurrying back into the gnarr. But we had a host of other interesting birds here such as Canyon Towhee, Curve-billed Thrasher, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay and Juniper Titmouse. We then stopped by a marshy reservoir where we had a number of exciting waterbirds- Lots of ducks, a large flock of White Pelicans but the standout was the number of various grebe species: Pied-billed, Eared, Western and even some Clark’s Grebes! A few of the Westerns even engaged in their legendary breeding dance, looking like high speed ballerinas as they ran tippy-toe across the water!

We stopped to pick up some lunch and then started the long drive to Kansas to get in position for our next lek experience. As we set off across the short grass prairies, we allowed for a few stops, one at a Black-tailed Prairie Dog town where we had several Burrowing Owls co-habitating within the dogtown. A few miles over we had a great look at a Mountain Plover that appeared to be incubating a nest! Quite the surprise however was a pair of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers on a telephone pole in the middle of the prairie! This was a first time-ever bird for this tour, and even more shocking as there wasn’t a tree in sight and no vegetation higher than a cholla cactus present! We then proceeded to finish the long drive to Oakley Kansas for the night. 

Day five was an exciting one! We arose early to meet a biologist from Kansas Audubon to witness the displays of the critically endangered Lesser Prairie-Chicken. This species has had an incredibly severe decline in its population and central Kansas may be the last stand for this bird. Thankfully, the woman charged with their recovery is an accomplished researcher as well as advocate for the Prairie-Chickens and it was a real treat to hear the results of her studies on this charming grouse. And charmed we were! Small pop-up tents were erected in the dark and then the group huddled into them where we were treated to a front row seat of these engaging birds. Unlike their larger relatives, the male Lessers perform cooperative displays with birds performing their dances in unison, with delightful little explosive popping sounds. There were a  Greater Prairie-Chicken present as well. We then loaded up and headed on to McCook Nebraska where we attended a delightful talk on Greater Prairie Chickens and then had a great dinner and early bed for our next day’s lek. 

The recovery program for the Greater Prairie-Chicken is thankfully a little more optimistic than that of the Lessers. While they still need unplowed tall-grass prairie, this species is a bit more flexible when it comes to habitat changes and human disturbance. For this lek, we were brought to a private ranch where a long-time rancher has become very devoted to helping protect this species. Settling us into a pair of tricked out livestock trailers, this was a very comfortable way to have a great view of today’s dancing chicken show! Before there was even enough light to see the birds, one could hear their melancholic moaning over the prairie wind. Before long there was enough light to watch the birds begin their dances, a vigorous shuffle punctuated by leaps into the air as they inflated their colored neck air sacs and, unlike the Lessers, got into some pretty rough tumbles with other males. It was overall very birdy from the trailers, with various appearances from Ring-necked Pheasant, Western Meadowlark, and a steady stream of migrating blackbirds, primarily Brewer’s Blackbirds. A few sharp eyes got on a flock of Chestnut-collared Longspurs that whipped by as well. After this fantastic show, we drove back into McCook for breakfast and to check out of our hotel.

After checkout, we stopped at a local McCook park, where we nabbed a bunch of birds we wouldn’t get elsewhere, Purple Martins, Yellow-headed Blackbird, and a flock of geese that had Ross’s, Greater White-fronted and a handful of Cackling Geese with them. We then started the trek back into Colorado. A brief look at a large reservoir gave us a flock of American Avocets with a Black-necked Stilt. We finished our days birding with a run through Pawnee Grasslands; a vast swath of prairie and rangeland. Tantalizing was a flyover Ferruginous Hawk, but showing much better was a Thick-billed Longspur that allowed everyone a careful study. We wandered around the plains a bit, getting on a very distant Ferruginous Hawk perched, allowing more people to see it, provided they had the imagination to pluck it out of the red rocks it was perched on! Settling down for the night in Fort Collins, Colorado, everyone was ready to fall into bed after a long drive to be fresh for the next day. 

We started out our birding tooling around Fort Collins for a couple of hours, looking at some lakes and marshes. We had some nice flocks of ducks, more Avocets and Black-necked Stilts, and a nice selection of larids- Bonaparte’s, Franklin’s, Ring-bills, Californias and even a couple Lesser Black-backed Gulls, along with a Caspian Tern!  From there we then headed up one of my more favorite mountain canyons on this tour, the Poudry River. It was a gorgeous spring day and the birding was oddly slow with fantastic highlights (so no complaints there!). We had yet more Golden Eagles, a nice flock of Violet-Green Swallows, some Clark’s Nutcrackers, and everyone enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and the relaxed pace of our travels that day. However the undoubtable highlight of the day was where we had our picnic lunch was the location of an alleged Northern Pygmy Owl nest, so we spent some time searching but to no avail. But patience is always key and weren’t we overjoyed when a Pygmy Owl flew in with a bat in its talons! Incredible! The owl took it to the nest (apparently over our picnic tables the whole time!) and passed it off to the female. It flew off but then returned where the female came out, they copulated and both just sat performing for us to really get to know these tiny little mountain predators! One of my best experiences with the species ever! We eventually dropped down out of the mountains to the Village of Walden for the night. Before checking in we looked at the massive marshy reservoir on the edge of town and it was full of birds. We had goodies like Greater White-fronted Geese, hundreds of ducks including a nice male Eurasian Wigeon, and some Black-crowned Night-Herons. 

On our penultimate day of the tour was another early morning, but like all lek mornings, a thrilling experience to be had!. We headed out in the dark and settled onto a dirt road running along a ridge where we would use our own vans as blinds to view the majestic Greater Sage-Grouse. This glorious beast is a near turkey sized grouse with a dramatic spiked tail, and a pair of ochre-colored inflatable chest air sacs. As the males bounce the sacs up and down and strut about the lek, more and more pheasant-like females would creep along the ground, trying to act as nonchalant as they could as they assessed the fitness of potential males. And what a show it was! To augment the experience, we had several Sage Thrashers singing and Pronghorn Antelope wandering by. After the grouse departed the lek, we headed back to the Inn to get a hearty breakfast and set out to our final lekking destination. We first hit the town of Steamboat Springs on our way to Craig, where we headed up a known birdy canyon for a round of birding; here we had nice looks at Evening Grosbeaks and our only Red-naped Sapsucker of the tour. We checked into Craig and a few of us went out to meet our lek host for the next morning as this was a new spot for not only me, but in the history of this tour. He was a kindly gentleman, the birds on the drive out were nice and the set up for the lek looked promising!

It finally came- our final day, and we had one last dancing grouse to track down. Normally its been a bit of a challenge as leks can shift around from year to year, but this new site had been highly recommended by a good friend of mine. We got into place and barely had to wait before a flock of displaying Sharp-tailed Grouse came creeping out of the long grasses to start their dancing. One of my favorite dancers among the grouse, they have quite the flashy set of moves they engage in to entice a female for breeding. After the lek broke apart we were delightlighted to grab a few more good birds for the tour, a couple of Long-billed Curlews flew by and as we drove out of the lek, had a couple of Greater Sage Grouse pop up! Closer to town, Quite the rocking finish for the trip! Content and happy, we spent the rest of the afternoon driving back to Denver where we had a delicious farewell dinner before finally parting ways from a most excellent tour! 

                                                                                                                                                                            - Skye Haas

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