Sharp-tailed grouse use leks to find mates during their breeding season. The leks usually have short vegetation, which can be achieved and maintained through management decisions such as grazing or haying. While the benefits to grouse are obvious, the influence of leks on other bird species has not been documented. We completed a field study to determine if leks contributed to habitat heterogeneity, and if breeding bird abundance was influenced by the presence of leks. The leks in this study were located in the Sandhills south of Valentine, Nebraska. Each lek was paired with a randomly-located off-lek site. At each lek and off-lek site habitat data were recorded in May and July at a distance of 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 m from the center point of each lek and random site. Birds were surveyed four times at each point in June 2015. Results showed that structure measures were different at the 0-m point on leks and off-lek sites, but there were no differences in vegetation structure between sites at the 25-100 m distances. The only bird species influenced by leks were brown-headed cowbirds and mourning doves. Both were three times more common at off-lek sites. Other bird species were not influenced by leks likely because of small lek size. This study will help give land managers a better understanding of the use of leks by grassland birds in the Nebraska Sandhills, and we hope will serve as a springboard for further research on the function of leks.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.