Manitoba Sharp-tailed Grouse are a very “area sensitive” species. Today the birds predominantly make their home in grasslands such as the Interlake Region, alfalfa crops with hedge rows, cropland slough bottoms, marsh edges, and northern bushland meadows.
Sharp-tailed grouse also prefer specific habitat conditions depending on the seasons and the bird’s activities at the time. The following is a general description of these various habitats.
1. Mating [lek] sites:
The lek sites are usually slightly elevated knolls somewhat bare of vegetation. The area can be as small as a house or as large as a baseball diamond. The same lek is used year after year if not spoiled.
2. Nesting sites:
Nesting sites require heavy cover protection from predators. The nesting sites are usually within a kilometer of the lek locations. The hen lays about one dozen eggs in a bowl shaped ground depression. Incubation is about twenty four days.
3. Brood sites:
Chick raising sites require a diversified habitat. The habitat must provide prairie grouse chicks concealment from predators, an invertebrate [insect] food source, plus loafing and resting areas open enough to permit travel by the chicks. High quality brood habitat includes forbs [herbaceous flowering plants] to support an insect population, mixed grasses and a scattering of shrubs.
4. Winter sites:
Winter sites are usually within one to five kilometers of lek sites. Riparian areas with deciduous trees and shrubs are ideal. Sharp-tailed Grouse will burrow in soft snow to escape predators and to ease winter weather.
5. Predator issues:
Predation may be the biggest source of mortality. Sharp-tailed Grouse are particularly prone to predation because of the following traits: [a] ground nesting [b] large clutches that are difficult to control [c] predictable lek behaviour. Among the predators are coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, magpies, crows, Great Horned Owls and hawks.
6. Anthropogenic [human] influence:
This refers to a myriad of human influences that impact bird populations. Many of the human influence factors are manageable issues.
7. Province wide habitat issues:
The province-wide coordination effort deals with the larger provincial picture and the somewhat fragmented Sharp-tailed Grouse habitat. As more habitat is lost, populations become isolated. Fragmentation holds several disadvantages but perhaps the most serious is the loss of genetic diversity.
