Dawn on the Lek: Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse Surveying & Banding

For the past month, Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT) staff and dedicated volunteers have been heading out into the landscape long before sunrise to witness one of the West’s most enduring wildlife traditions: the historic leks of the Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse.

Each spring, TRLT takes part in surveys during lek season, when males gather on traditional breeding grounds to display and compete for mates. These rituals have played out on the same sites for decades. Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse are identified by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need, and TRLT also recognizes them in conservation easement baseline reports as a significant ecological resource across the landscapes we help protect.

These early morning surveys help track population numbers and activity from year to year, giving biologists valuable insight into long-term trends and the health of local grouse populations.

TRLT also partnered with Idaho Department of Fish and Game to assist with banding birds this season. Banding helps researchers better understand movement, survival, and breeding patterns, adding another important layer of data that informs future habitat management and conservation work.

Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse are closely tied to healthy, connected grassland habitats, with populations in southeast Idaho relying heavily on private lands enrolled in USDA NRCS Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) plantings. The birds observed and banded this season were on a conservation easement property that includes CRP-established grasslands and ongoing sagebrush restoration, a clear example of how working lands conservation supports both wildlife habitat and long-term ecological function.

We’re grateful for the opportunity to witness these time-honored spring rituals, and to contribute to their long-term conservation.