The greater prairie chicken provides its own spectacular display, though on a smaller scale than a stampede of bison or the flight of the whooping crane. During breeding season, the birds gather at a dancing ground called a lek, where males inflate yellow sacs near their throats, raise feathers on their heads like pointed ears, and send booming calls across the prairie. Greater prairie chickens return to these same open grassland sites year after year, and as the leks disappear, so do the prairie chickens.

One subspecies is Federally endangered. and one is a federal candidate.