Sharptails in some areas are seeing similar declines. The statewide population dropped by 77 percent from 1981 to 1996, an unprecedented decline compared to any other Minnesota wildlife species in recent history. Shadow of death What hurts the sharptail, one of four grouse species in Minnesota, are trees. The bird lives best in large brushlands-patchworks of open grasslands or peatlands scattered with bushes and stunted trees. These areas are being taken over by trees planted by landowners and those that take over open spaces when fires are absent.
Trees can turn a sunny brushland into a shady woodland.
And that's death to prairie grouse. Unlike its woodland cousin, the ruffed grouse, sharptails don't look for hawks and other birds of prey swooping down from trees. It may be that hawks are harder to see against the black background of a tree. Christian and others tracking the sharptail's decline suspect that either the predation rate is enough to kill off the sharptails in an area, or that once trees move in, the birds have poorer nesting success and smaller broods. The prairie chicken may not be native to Minnesota, but scientists know for certain that the sharp-tailed grouse is indigenous.