Spruce Grouse
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This week I’m featuring the Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis). The Spruce Grouse is a bird of taiga and montane coniferous forests throughout the far north parts of North America, including Alaska and most of Canada. Its range extends south into the upper regions of North America including parts of Washington, the Idaho panhandle, western Montana, the northeast corner of Minnesota and across Michigan’s upper peninsula.
I’ve had the good fortune to see a Spruce Grouse a few times. The first time was in Alaska in 2003 near Denali National Park. Janet and I were with friends visiting the park and staying at cabins a few miles outside the park boundaries. I woke up early one morning and decided to see what wildlife might be hanging out around the cabin when I saw one hanging out nearby. Other sightings include a hen with several young in Montana’s Glacier National Park in August 2009, and a lone female In British Columbia’s Kootenai National Park in June 2010.
The Spruce Grouse, while not flashy, is a gorgeous bird. Renowned for its lack of fear and reluctant to use its wings for flight, the Spruce Grouse often refuses to move even when approached within a few feet. Instead it puts great stock in its plumage to keep it camouflaged. Meriwether Lewis generously described it as “gentle”; others called it a “fools hen” due to this behavior. It was safe near me since the only shots I fired involved my camera.
What it looks like
The Spruce Grouse is a medium sized gamebird, although on the small size compared to other grouse species. It is found only in coniferous forests. Females are about 15-17 inches long and weighs about one pound. Males average about 20% larger and are darker overall, with a dark head, a broad dark patch on the upper breast, and dark tail feathers. Females have a breast pattern consisting of horizontal barring with white and black, dark brown, or reddish-brown feathers. All of the pictures shown here are females (at least for the adults). This picture is from Kootenai National Park in 2010.
Breeding
Both male and female Spruce Grouse have their own, separate territories, coming together to breed. Females are monogamous while the males are polygynous. Male courtship displays include tail swishing, tail flicking, and head jerking. After mating, the female is on her own to lay eggs and raise young. The female selects the nest site, either a natural or created depression on the ground, often in moss at the base of a spruce or pine tree but always with overhead cover. She lays 5 to 10 eggs and incubates them for about 3 weeks, leaving the nest only a few times each day to forage and defecate. This picture is of the hen with a brood of young at Glacier National Park in 2009.
Spruce Grouse hens are responsible for all parental care – nest defense, incubation, brooding and feeding. The young are precocial, meaning they have downy feathers when hatched and are able to leave the nest and feed on their own shortly after hatching. The young generally stay in a brood with the hen for 70 to 100 days before setting forth on their own. This picture shows one of the young from Glacier National Park. I only had my telephoto lens with me, and this was before iPhones, so I wasn’t able to get a wide angle shot showing the adult with her chicks. If you look closely, you can see the downy edges of the feathers.
What they eat
Spruce Grouse are primarily herbivorous, relying on pine or spruce needles. In addition, they consume ground cover such as flower tips, fruits from small plants, and mushrooms. During warmer months they also consume small arthropods and terrestrial snails. A Spruce Grouse can store up to 10% of its body weight in food in its crop (the pouch between the throat and stomach). This allows it to digest the food in safety or during a long, cold night. The Spruce Grouse’s digestive organs change with seasonal shifts in diet. In winter, when the bird must eat more food to maintain its mass and energy balance, the gizzard (which grinds up hard-to-digest food) grows by about 75%, and intestines increase in length by about 40%.
Moose
On the other side of the trail from the Spruce Grouse with her hens was this Moose. It was busy browsing, ignoring several hikers within dozens of feet. I’ve seen Moose several times before, but this is the closest I’ve been to one.
That’s all for this week.
Next week, I’ll cover the American Dipper, the only truly aquatic songbird found in North America.
If you missed it, check out last week’s Baltimore Oriole.