Spruce Grouse: Medium grouse with barred, dark gray-brown upperparts, black underparts show white bars on breast, white chevrons on sides, belly. Get Instant ID help for 650+ North American birds. This individual from Maine has chestnut tips. Females come in two color morphs, gray and chestnut. A - Z. App. Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies(Order: Galliformes, Family:Phasianidae). When approached by a predator, it relies on camouflage and immobility to an amazing degree, for example letting people come to within a few feet before finally taking flight, a behavior that has earned it the nickname "fool's hen". Chicks in alarm give a high, short seer. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region. Other Sounds. Generally act very tame; may allow a hunter or a slow-moving vehicle to approach to within a few feet. song. A stout chickenlike bird with a small bill, short but thick legs, and medium-length tail that can be fanned into a semicircle. Females are mottled in brown, gray, gold, black, and white; males are similarly patterned above but more blackish, with variable white feathering below. Common in the north woods but very easy to overlook, the Spruce Grouse eludes many birders who seek it. Most Franklin’s Spruce Grouse make a loud double wing clap by striking the wingtips together over the head. The Cornell Lab will send you updates about birds, birding, and opportunities to help bird conservation. Tail is either black with fine white spots near base (Franklin's) or black with rufous-brown tip (Tiaga). It is one of the most arboreal grouse, fairly well adapted to perching and moving about in trees. Feeds primarily on needles from spruce and pines, but when not eating needles they forage on the ground, eating fresh growth from shrubs and understory plants. Males are brown-black with neat white spots and, during displays, a searing red eyebrow comb. Absurdly tame, it may sit motionless while observers pass by just a few feet away, and it may thus go unnoticed. Males have a slate gray head and neck, a red eyebrow, a black chest, and white spots on lower belly. Spruce grouse. Males have a slate gray head and neck, a red eyebrow, a black chest, and white spots on lower belly. Smaller than a Dusky Grouse, larger than a California Quail. I took it with a grain of salt and moved on with my day. Plump bird of spruce forests. Males produce multiple sounds when displaying. 0:00 / Spruce grouse (song) male, song. ", Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies(Order: Galliformes, Family:Phasianidae). Similar noises made by the tail, a swishing sound and decisive whoosh, are delivered during the final parts of the male’s courtship display. The Spruce Grouse is a dapper species of evergreen forests in northern and western North America. Females also give calls including a short kuk, nasal purr, and a sharper version of the latter, sounding like a bark. Spruce Grouse has two very different forms with differences in plumage, behavior, and genetics: "Franklin’s" Spruce Grouse (subspecies franklinii) inhabits montane forests in parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Alberta, and British Columbia. Females are browner and intricately patterned; best distinguished from other grouse by short tail and barred chest and belly. They use younger, regenerating tracts with a dense understory more than old growth. Other partridges, grouse… Male "Franklin’s" Spruce Grouse lacks the rufous tail tips of "Canada"; and "Franklin’s" has uppertail coverts tipped in white, lacking in "Canada. Chicks in alarm give a high, short seer. These chickenlike birds eat mostly the needles of fir, spruce, and pine, an aromatic diet that makes them unpalatable to many hunters. Get Instant ID help for 650+ North American birds. Typically seen on ground or along roadsides, but can be fairly high in trees. Males also make an audible fluttering sound as they perform their flutter-flight display. They are almost always seen walking rather than in flight. This female has chestnut mottling throughout with strong horizontal barring on the underparts. Eats primarily pine and spruce needles in the canopy, but also forages on the ground for insects, fresh growth on shrubs, and berries. Medium-sized chickenlike bird. Drumming—similar to Ruffed Grouse, but involving only two thumps—is sometimes heard during courtship. Males perform a strutting display in spring to entice females. Females are intricately scaled with brown, buff, and white. Males produce multiple sounds when displaying. They readily perch in trees, and do most of their feeding there in winter. Listen to Spruce grouse on bird-sounds.net - a comprehensive collection of North American bird songs and bird calls. In spring, females perch high in trees to deliver a loud series of nasal clucks called the cantus, usually at dawn and dusk, perhaps to mark territory. But our camp was on a lake surrounded by black spruce, and we usually had a couple of spruce grouse wander through camp each day. See more images of this species in Macaulay Library. Favorites. The spruce grouse or Canada grouse is a medium-sized grouse closely associated with the coniferous boreal forests or taiga of North America. Spruce Grouse forage on the ground for small plants, fungi, and insects; or in coniferous trees, where they nibble fresh needles, their primary diet for most of the year. The Franklin's subspecies of Spruce Grouse in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia have a darker black breast without white barring.