Family: Phasianidae, Pheasants and Grouse view all from this
family Description 17-18" (43-45.5 cm). Chicken-like ground bird
with strong vertical bars of dark brown and buff-white in a
zebralike pattern over the mantle, flanks, and underparts. Tail
short, rounded, and dark brown, inconspicuously barred with buff
in females. Male has elongated feathers, called pinnae, erected
to form earlike structures, as well as a bright orange,
deepening to red near the head, air sac on either side of neck,
inflating during displays. Endangered Status Attwater's Prairie-
Chicken, a subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken, is on the
U.S. Endangered Species List. It is classified as endangered in
Texas. Once found from the Atlantic Coast west to Wyoming, the
Greater Prairie-Chicken has been exterminated from much of this
vast range, thanks to the destruction of the undisturbed
prairies on which it breeds. The East Coast subspecies, known as
the Heath Hen, is extinct. Attwater's, the form inhabiting the
prairies along the Te