This is Bird Note.

The cheerful-voiced chestnut-collared long spur gets along well with the cattle that share its northern prairie breeding range, for the most part.

But that relationship is not always an amicable one.

Cows will sometimes step on the longspurs neatly woven nests in the grass,

and there are records of grazing cattle nudging eggs and chicks out of the nests and eating

them.

In a few cases, heavy grazing appears to have caused adult longspurs to abandon their efforts

to breed for the season.

However, if cows are managed properly, they may be able to help long spurs persist.

Two hundred years ago, the birds shared the prairie with bison, which kept the grasses short

enough for the birds to nest.

Today, on the northern Great Plains, long spur breeding success rates have been shown to

increase when ranchers carefully manage their cattle to avoid overgrazing

and habitat degradation. And grassland birds need every bit of help they can get, even from cows. For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.