Great Basin Grouse
D.o oreiuys
The Great Basin blue grouse are residents in the mountain
ranges of the following areas:The eastern half of Nevada
and all of Utah. They spend the winter in the higher elvations on ridge tops, much of the tme sitting in a single tree and eating nothing but Douglas fir needles and snow.
They may spend as much as 10 days at a time in a tree without coming to the ground. There is some evidence that they leave the tree and burrow in the snow if condisions
get very cold maybe around minus 25 degrees. As spring
time approaches thy will fly down the mountain to greening
basin below where the sage brush meets the timber around
5,000' elvationb. At this point they will pick a terrritory
called their HOOTING site. Sometimes prime areas wil
have males every 200'-300' these are called HOTTING
bands. The females will come down the mountain 2-3 weeks after the males arrive, around the last week in April,maybe later depening on the spring melt. Once she finds a males she likes,they will breed 1 or 2 times and then
go off and lay a clutch of 8-11 eggs.She will incubate for the next 24 days and hatch and rasie the chicks on herv own.
All summer long they slowly work their way up the mountain. They will sstay together until around mid- September.
Older male at a HOTTING post.
young male in mid winter
King George is a 5 year old male
Another young male late winter.
King Geroge on a ground pen late winter
King Geroge late winter
male on snow
Look how big their tail band is WOW!!
King Geroge eating Mountain Ash berries!
