The greater sage-grouse is a permanent resident in its breeding grounds but may move short distances to lower elevations during winter.

The adult male has a yellow patch over each eye, is grayish on top with a white breast, and has a dark brown throat and a black belly; two yellowish sacs on the neck are inflated during courtship display.

[9] Hens with broods on the National Antelope Refuge in Oregon were most frequently found (54–67% of observations) in low sagebrush (A. arbuscula) cover.

[13] In 2013, the Canadian Governor in Council on behalf of the Minister of the Environment, under the Species at Risk Act, annexed an emergency order for the protection of the greater sage-grouse.

[19] In a study of habitat selection by male greater sage grouse in central Montana during breeding season, sagebrush height and canopy cover at 110 daytime feeding and loafing sites of cocks were recorded.

In Mono County, California, the home range of marked females during one month of the breeding season was 750 to 875 acres (304 to 354 ha), enough area to include several active leks.

[22] DNA from feathers dropped at leks showed that about 1% of grouse may travel long distances to explore breeding areas up to 120 miles away, a type of long-distance dispersal that can potentially boost populations and temper inbreeding.

[12] In a threetip sagebrush (A. tripartata) habitat averaging 8 in (20 cm) in height, hens selected the tallest plants for nesting cover.

[36] Favored foods of prelaying and brood-rearing greater sage-grouse hens in Oregon are common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), goatsbeard (Tragopogon dubius), western yarrow (Achillea millefolium), prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola), and sego lily (Calochortus macrocarpus).

Leaves and flowers of the species listed above and other dicots contained higher amounts of crude protein, calcium, and phosphorus than sagebrush and may be important in greater sage-grouse diets for these reasons.

In winter in Eden Valley, Wyoming, they have been observed regularly visiting partially frozen streams to drink from holes in the ice.

Greater amounts of both tall grass and medium-height shrub cover were associated collectively with a lower probability of nest predation.

In southeastern Oregon, a decline in black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) numbers may have caused predators to switch to greater sage-grouse as their primary prey.

[44] Predator species include coyotes (Canis latrans),[44] bobcats (Lynx rufus), American badgers (Taxidea taxus),[47] falcons (Falconidae),[48] and hawks and eagles (Accipitridae sp.

[52] Residential building and energy development have caused the greater sage-grouse population to decline from 16 million 100 years ago to between 200,000 and 500,000 today.

[53] This species is in decline due to loss of habitat;[54] the bird's range has shrunk in historical times, having been extirpated from British Columbia, Kansas, and Nebraska.

In May 2000, the Canadian Species at Risk Act listed the subspecies Centrocercus urophasianus phaios, formerly found in British Columbia, as being extirpated in Canada.

[55] The presence of subfossil bones at Conkling Cave and Shelter Cave in southern New Mexico show that the species was present south of its current range at the end of the last ice age, leading some experts to project that the species could become increasingly vulnerable as global climate change increases the humidity in semiarid regions.

[59] The original petition to list the greater sage-grouse was mailed to the USFWS in June, 2002 by Craig Dremann of Redwood City.

[60] Dremann, for his petition, quoted a Department of Interior document about the declining status of the bird, putting the USFWS in the difficult position of having to argue against another Federal agency's findings.

The reason why Dremann sought the listing, is after driving across the bird's range in 1997, and noting what vegetation grew at each post mile, from California to South Dakota and back, recorded how damaged and destroyed the native sagebrush understory habitat had become from lack of management of the grazing of public lands.

[61] The following groups have supported Dremann's petition to list: American Lands Alliance, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Native Ecosystems, WildEarth Guardians, the Fund for Animals, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Hells Canyon Preservation Council, The Larch Company, The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Northwest Ecosystem Alliance, Oregon Natural Desert Association, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Predator Defense Institute, Sierra Club, Sinapu, Western Fire Ecology Center, Western Watersheds Project, Wild Utah Project, and Wildlands CPR.

In 2010, after a second review, the Department of the Interior assigned the greater sage-grouse a status known as "warranted but precluded", essentially putting it on a waiting list (behind more critically threatened species) for federal protection.

Since half of all remaining sage grouse habitat is on private lands, the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service launched the Sage Grouse Initiative, a partnership-based, science-driven, Farm Bill-funded effort that uses voluntary incentives to proactively conserve America's western rangelands, wildlife, and rural way of life.

The language in the 2015 bill, "Prohibits funds from being used to write or issue rules pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and related to the sage-grouse.

"[66] As rationale for its decision, the Department said it would rely on a new land-management plan to protect the sage grouse's habitat of 165 million acres across eleven Western states.

In issuing its finding, the FWS stated that: A status review conducted by the Service has found that the greater sage-grouse remains relatively abundant and well-distributed across the species' 173-million acre range and does not face the risk of extinction now or in the foreseeable future.

The Service's decision follows an unprecedented conservation partnership across the western United States that has significantly reduced threats to the greater sage-grouse across 90% of the species' breeding habitat.

[69]For the 2018 appropriations bill, over the objections of conservationists and the Democratic party, Congress applied similar measures to two other species: the gray wolf and the lesser prairie chicken.

In 2013, the Canadian Governor in Council on behalf of the Minister of the Environment, under the Species at Risk Act, annexed an emergency order for the protection of the greater sage-grouse.