A Prairie-Chicken's Boom Can Carry Half a Mile

In spring, a male Attwater's prairie-chicken raises dark neck feathers, inflates bright orange air sacs, and makes a low boom that can carry for half a mile. The display runs from February into May. It is a small sound with a very large history behind it.

About one million of the birds lived across the Gulf Coast prairies of Texas and Louisiana in the early 1900s. Their habitat once covered roughly six million acres. Less than one percent of that coastal prairie remains. Cropland, cities, industrial growth, improved pasture, invasive plants, and brush divided or replaced the grassland. Fire suppression let woody plants spread. Overhunting and red imported fire ants added more pressure.

As checked in July 2026, FWS listed two remaining populations: one at the refuge in Colorado County and one on private land in Goliad County. With so little connected habitat, drought, floods, storms, and predators hit the birds harder. The boom that once carried across a broad coastal range now gives this county one of its rarest living sounds.