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Rapid expansion of the wind energy industry has raised concerns about the potential effects of anthropogenic disturbance on prairie grouse. While efforts have been made to address the effects of wind energy facilities on measures of fitness, their effect on the behaviors of prairie grouse has been largely neglected. To address these concerns, we investigated the effects of an existing wind energy facility in Nebraska that became operational in 2005 on the lekking behavior of male greater prairie‐chickens Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus between March and May 2013. Given the potential for disturbance caused by wind turbine noise to disrupt acoustic communication and thus behavior, we predicted that males at leks close to, compared to far from, the wind energy facility would spend more time in agonistic behaviors, and less in booming displays. Given the potential for wind turbine noise to reduce the number of females attending leks (hereafter ‘female lek attendance’), we also predicted that males at leks close to the wind energy facility would spend more time in non‐breeding behaviors and less time in breeding behaviors than males farther from the facility. Although we found no effect of the wind energy facility on female lek attendance, males at leks closer to the wind energy facility spent less time in non‐breeding behaviors than those at leks farther away. However, distance from the wind energy facility had no effect on time spent performing booming displays, flutter jumps, or in agonistic behaviors. Given that lekking behaviors of males influence mating success, our results may have consequences for the fitness of prairie grouse breeding in the vicinity of wind energy facilities.

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Biologists and conservation planners are frequently asked to evaluate the spatial effects of anthropogenic disturbance on species of conservation concern. The linear response of a demographic parameter, such as survival or abundance, to the distance-from-disturbance is often used to inform spatial restrictions on development. The linear response, we argue, does not model the most common biological mechanisms that cause changes to demographic parameters, nor does it provide an estimate of a threshold that planners could use to protect species of concern. In the Great Plains of North America, biologists are increasingly concerned about the impact of energy development on populations of four species of grouse. To address this gap in our ability to properly assess distance thresholds, we developed a framework of four response patterns (null, linear, stair step, ramped) to describe the potential effects of a disturbance on biological processes relevant to nesting grouse located along a gradient from the disturbance. We simulated position and survival of grouse nests along a 25-km disturbance gradient to mimic the response to disturbances. We evaluated the relative support for a set of linear and nonlinear models in a known fate analysis of nest survival. Each of the underlying response patterns was detected with an appropriate model in a model selection framework (wAIC  0.61-0.75) when the sample size of nests was high (n  500), and thresholds were identified when present. In a low sample size scenario (n  50 nests) that may be typical of shortterm empirical sampling schemes, the stair step threshold was detected, but the more complex, ramped threshold was not detected. We provide recommendations regarding study design and inference for ecological and policy thresholds, and we encourage researchers to be cautious about the manner in which threshold responses are assessed and described.