Ruffed Grouse

     The Ruffed Grouse has the biggest range of all North American Grouse species, and is the state bird of Pennsylvania. It gets its name from the tufts of black feathers on its neck, which are raised into a ruff by the male during its courtship display. The Ruffed grouse is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a “Partridge“, and occasionally confused with the Grey Partridge, a bird of open areas rather than woodlands.

     The Ruffed grouse is generally mottled grey, brown, buff and black, with lighter barred lower breast and belly. It has a ragged head crest, and a square tail which has a broad, black band towards the tip. Both sexes of the Ruffed grouse look very similar in appearance. And the tail pattern is one of the few ways in which the plumage of males and females is different. The tail band of the female Ruffed grouse is often broken and the rump feathers each contain a single dot. While the tail band of the male is unbroken and the rump feathers contain more than one white dot each.

    Ruffed grouse have also two distinct subspecies with different color morphs; grey and red. Both varieties bear slight differences which are most noticeable on the dorsal parts of the bird, particularly the tail. The grey morph of the Ruffed grouse is dominant in the northern parts of the bird’s finding range. While the red morph dominates in the south.

     Twelve subspecies of the Ruffed grouse are currently recognized, each differing slightly in size, color and food habits. Mating generally takes place in April and May, and the female lays between 9 and 12 eggs. The eggs are incubated for approximately 24 days and the chicks are able to feed themselves straight away after hatching. Ruffed grouse chicks usually start making short flights when they are about 12 days old.