Ruffed Grouse

Bonasa umbellus

Order GALLIFORMES - Family PHASIANIDAE - Subfamily Tetraoninae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

Many people's first experience with the Ruffed Grouse is when it explodes from the forest floor in a flurry of wings. Often, it's gone before they can turn around. The grouse's cryptic coloration and slow, deliberate walk make it virtually invisible.

Cool Facts

• The toes of Ruffed Grouse grow projections off their sides in winter, making them look like combs. The projections are believed to act as snowshoes to help the grouse walk across snow.

• In winter, the Ruffed Grouse may dive into soft snow to spend the night. Falling snow can hide the evidence of its entry. A grouse bursting at one's feet from flat snow covered ground can be quite startling.

• In much of their range, Ruffed Grouse populations go through 8 to 11 year cycles of increasing and decreasing numbers. Their cycles can be attributed to the snowshoe hare cycle. When hare populations are high, predator populations increase too. When the hare numbers go down, the predators must find alternate prey and turn to grouse, decreasing their numbers.

• Ruffed Grouse nests occasionally are parasitized by Ring-necked Pheasants or Wild Turkeys that lay eggs in the nests.

Description

• Size: 40-50 cm (16-20 in)
• Wingspan: 50-64 cm (20-25 in)
• Weight: 450-750 g (15.89-26.48 ounces)

• Medium to large chicken-like bird.
• Thick bodied.
• Tail moderately long, rounded.
• Rounded wings in flight.
• Short crest on head.
• Cryptic coloring of gray and brown mottled with dark and light spots.

• Feathered legs.
• Dark ruff on sides of neck.
• Dark barring on flanks.
• Narrow dark band near end of tail.
• Two color phases: gray and rufous; color most noticeable on tail.

Sex Differences

Male larger, with subtle plumage differences.

Male

Large neck ruff. Large crest. Rump feathers with two or more whitish dots.

Female

Crest and tail shorter. Ruff smaller, sometimes not apparent. Rump feathers with one rounded or oval dot. Dark tail band usually broken or blotchy.

Immature

Juvenile looks like female, but does not have black band on tail. Immature looks similar to adult.

Similar Species

• Spruce Grouse female similar, but lacks a crest and has a uniformly colored tail without the dark band.

Sound

Male drums with wings to produce a series of deep thumping sounds that increase in tempo.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Resident in deciduous forests in central Alaska, throughout Canada, and southward to northern California, Utah, and northern Alabama. Also some scattered disconnected populations, some of which were human introductions.

Habitat

Aspen woodlands and early succession mixed deciduous forests, with small clearings.

Food

Buds, twigs, catkins, leaves, ferns, soft fruits, acorns, and some insects.

Behavior

Courtship

Male drums from fallen log to attract females. Male may mate with more than one female, and females may visit several males. After copulation, male has nothing more to do with reproduction; the female raises the young alone.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A bowl-like depression in dead leaves and vegetation on the ground, typically at the base of a tree, stump, or boulder.

Egg Description

Milky to cinnamon-buff, usually plain, but may have reddish spots.

Clutch Size

Usually 7-16 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Covered in brownish down and eyes open. Leave the nest within 24 hours and feed themselves immediately.

Conservation Status

The Ruffed Grouse is an important game bird in most of its range. Management efforts seek to maintain early to mid-successional habitats. Eastern populations are likely to decline as deciduous forests mature and are fragmented by rural and suburban development.

Other Names

Gélinotte huppée (French)

Sources used to construct this page:

Rusch, D. H., DeStefano, M. C. Reynolds, and D. Lauten. 2000. Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus). In The Birds of North America, No. 515 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.