Central Oregon – Individuals can watch a very unique mating ritual in the sagebrush of Eastern Oregon, live from the comfort of their homes and offices.
The Bulletin reports that for the third consecutive year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has partnered with The Nature Conservancy, a national conservation-oriented nonprofit, to set up a live-streaming webcam to the east of Bend in the territory that greater sage grouse travel to mate each spring. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the webcam provides a way for visitors to see the rare mating ritual without disturbing the birds’ habitat.
Each spring, thousands of sage grouse travel to leks — the areas where the male birds perform a unique dance to appeal to females — in Eastern Oregon. The males puff out their chests and strut for females in a competitive attempt to win a mate.
The agency’s “lek cam” will be active until May 15 from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., when much of the courtship happens. She added that the camera will use infrared light to illuminate the birds before dawn without disturbing them. Levy would not disclose the location of the webcam, beyond saying it was located on private land to the east of Bend.
While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pays for and operates the webcam, Amato said the service partners with The Nature Conservancy, which streams the webcam and edits and hosts pre-recorded sage grouse-related material on its website. The lek cam is one of the organization’s most popular web pages while it is active. Since the webpage came online in 2015, it has received more than 11,500 clicks.
More importantly, fish and wildlife officials say seeing the mating ritual helps raise awareness about the greater sage-grouse, a ground-dwelling chicken-sized bird that has been a contentious topic in Oregon in recent years. Greater sage grouse live among the sagebrush in the inland West, including Eastern Oregon, but habitat destruction led to the species being considered for protection on the Endangered Species Act. In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to list the species, a decision that frustrated environmental groups, according to The Bulletin’s archives. In September of that year, Gov. Kate Brown signed an executive order that required Oregon to protect sage grouse habitat. The order increases wildfire suppression and monitors other threats in sage grouse territory.
The Nature Conservancy lists protecting Oregon’s sagebrush territory as one of its priorities in the state, and wildlife officials say seeing the unique courtship ritual through a webcam helps people appreciate the birds.
