Need another bird for your life list? Just head to Colorado! But you may have to hurry.

For a number of years, birders recognized that a sage grouse, found mostly in the Gunnison Basin in southwest Colorado, was different. The local bird was much smaller than the Northern Sage Grouse, it had white feathers on its tail and back and it had very different mating rituals. Recently, Jessica Young at Western State College in Colorado and Clait Braun of Colorado State University published genetic evidence that the small-bodied sage grouse was, indeed, a distinct species. In July, the American Ornithological Society, the authority on recognizing new species, published its current checklist and recognized the Gunnison Sage Grouse (Centrocercus minimus) as a newly named species.

Unfortunately, the species currently occurs in eight isolated populations with a total estimated spring breeding population of less than 4,000 individuals with the largest population (less than 3,000) in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado. Some of the remaining populations are small - less than 150 breeding birds - and several former populations have disappeared since 1980. Increasingly, habitat fragmentation produces these small, isolated populations of sage grouse which may show reduced genetic variation from small effective population sizes and the resultant inbreeding. In addition, genetic diversity in natural populations may also be highly influenced by mating systems such as the sage grouse's lek mating system. Sage Grouse have a lek mating system in which males defend display territories and provide no resources such as nesting or foraging sites for females.

In January 2000 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife proposed to have the Gunnison Sage Grouse listed as a Candidate Species. Also in January 2000, a coalition of national environmental groups have petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife to consider an emergency listing of the Gunnison Sage Grouse under the Endangered Species Act.

So, welcome, the Gunnison Sage Grouse. And good luck.

(Ref.: http://www.western.edu/bio/young/gunnsg/gunnsg.htm .)

Submitted by Pauline Garber

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Last updated 18 September, 2004 .