Meet The Rare Chicken That Looks Like a Rabbit

The Exotic Prairie-Chicken

Meet the Attwater’s prairie-chicken, a rare bird that looks part rabbit, part ancient god, with dazzling plumage and dramatic courtship displays.

Native to the Gulf Coast

This bird once thrived across coastal grasslands of Texas and Louisiana, with populations reaching over one million in the early 1900s.

A Bird Like No Other

Males display speckled feathers, rabbitlike tufts, and orange sacs, while females are duller, mottling in with grasslands.

A Special Diet

These prairie-chickens eat grass shoots, seeds, flower petals, and insects, as well as being hunted by hawks, coyotes, snakes, and raccoons.

The “Boomer” Dance

For mating season, males stomp, strut, and balloon orange sacs, producing deep “woo-woo” calls, inspiring Plains Indian traditional dances.

Once Abundant, Now Endangered

The loss of habitat, invasive Chinese tallow trees, and urbanization dropped numbers from millions in 1900 to only 8,700 by 1937.

Population Collapse

Attwater’s prairie-chicken was declared endangered by 1967. Less than 50 existed in some breeding sites by the early 2000s.

Conservation Efforts

Captive-breeding programs at Houston Zoo, Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, and even NASA’s Johnson Space Center succeeded in stabilizing populations.

Near Catastrophe, Then Revival

Numbers dropped to only 42 birds in 2016. Hurricane Harvey almost destroyed them, but slow recovery started with reintroductions.

The Exotic Prairie-Chicken

Now, about 178 wild birds exist. With conservation efforts and luck, the Attwater’s prairie-chicken can again become magnificent.