Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Ruffed grouse are found through­out Canada and in 38 of the 49 con­ti­nen­tal United States. In the east they ex­tend as far south as north­ern Geor­gia. In the west­ern states ruffed grouse are found along the west­ern slopes of the Cas­cades into north­ern Cal­i­for­nia and in the Rocky Moun­tains into Wyoming and cen­tral Utah. In the cen­tral United States iso­lated pop­u­la­tions per­sist in the Dako­tas and as far south as Arkansas. Pop­u­la­tions have been in­tro­duced into New­found­land and Nevada. (Ruffed Grouse So­ci­ety, 2003)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

The Ruffed Grouse prefers forested areas in rough, cold lands. It also prefers dim and quiet woods, deep thick­ets, or shel­tered swamps. The Ruffed Grouse doesn't like open fields, and will rarely, if never, be found there.

Pear­son,1940.

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The Ruffed Grouse is ap­prox­i­mately 18 inches in length. The color is two-toned red­dish-brown and spot­ted on the back, and yel­low­ish with dark bars be­neath. The tail has 18 broad feath­ers, which ap­pear to be half-di­a­mond shaped when spread. The tar­sus is partly feath­ered.

Pear­son, 1940.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Average mass

  644 g

  22.70 oz

  AnAge

• Average basal metabolic rate

  2.3894 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

The Ruffed Grouse is a ground nest­ing bird. The fe­male lays one egg per day, until her clutch is com­plete. The av­er­age clutch is about 11 eggs. The fe­male sits on the eggs, in the nest, until the eggs hatch, after 23 to 26 days. Fledg­ing oc­curs after 8 to 10 weeks.

Pear­son, 1940, USDA For­est Ser­vice 2001.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Average eggs per season

  11

  AnAge

• Average time to hatching

  24 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  120 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  120 days

  AnAge

Lifes­pan/Longevity

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  102 months

  Bird Banding Laboratory

Be­hav­ior

The Ruffed Grouse is a very parental bird. The fe­male takes care of the hatch­lings until they can roost on their own in trees. These are fairly soli­tary birds, ex­cept dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, when they con­gre­gate to­gether.

The male grouse has a pe­cu­liar habit, that any woodsper­son is prob­a­bly fa­mil­iar with, al­though few have ac­tu­ally wit­nessed it. The male makes a dis­tinct drum­ming sound. This drum­ming serves three pur­poses. First, it is given as a call to fe­males, Sec­ond, it is given as a chal­lenge to com­bat be­tween two males dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, Third, it is given as an ex­pres­sion of vigor and vi­tal­ity, usu­ally at the end of mat­ing sea­son.

Leonard, 1973.

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• motile

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Over one-fourth of the Ruffed Grouse's diet is made up of fruit, such as thorn ap­ples, blue­ber­ries, straw­ber­ries. It also eats wild and cul­ti­vated sun­flower seeds, birch, poplar, and wil­low buds. The Christ­mas Fern is also a spe­cial food for the Ruffed Grouse.

Young Ruffed Grouse Chicks are pri­mar­ily in­sec­tiv­o­rous, until they are old enough to care fo r them­selves.

Birds of Amer­ica, 1940.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The Ruffed Grouse is hunted for sport, so areas that have very dense pop­u­la­tions of the bird ben­e­fit from extra tourism dur­ing the hunt­ing sea­son

Also, The Ruffed Grouse hatch­lings are mainly in­sec­tiv­o­rous, so the in­sect pop­u­la­tions in some area de­crease shortly after the hatch­ing sea­son.

Pe­ter­son, 1980.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Some farm­ers are trou­bled by these birds, be­cause they are pri­mar­ily fruit eaters.

Leonard, 1973.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The Ruffed Grouse is hunted for sport, but it is far from being en­dan­gered. The only real re­quire­ment that the Ruffed Grouse needs is a forested re­gion, so this is an­other an­i­mal that could be af­fected by ex­ten­sive de­for­esta­tion.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

I first ex­pe­ri­enced the Ruffed Grouse when I was about six, and I was wan­der­ing about in my uncle's woods. I was star­tled by the char­ac­ter­is­tic "drum­ming" sound. Since then, I have heard the noise sev­eral times, in var­i­ous wooded areas.

Con­trib­u­tors

Jeff Haupt (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Pear­son, T.G. 1940. Birds of Amer­ica. Third Edi­tion. Gar­den City Pub­lish­ing Com­pany, New York.

Leonard, L.R. 1973. The World of the Ruffed Grouse. First Edi­tion. J.B. Lip­pin­cott Com­pany, Philadel­phia and New York.

Pe­ter­son, Tory, and Roger. 1980. A Field Guide to the Birds. Houghton Mif­flin Pub­lish­ing, Boston.

Ruffed Grouse So­ci­ety, 2003. "Ruffed grouse facts" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 14, 2005 at http://​www.​ruffedgrousesociety.​org/​ruffed_​facts.​asp.

U.S. De­part­ment of Agri­cul­ture, For­est Ser­vice, Rocky Moun­tain Re­search Sta­tion, Fire Sci­ences Lab­o­ra­tory, 2001. "Fire Ef­fects In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem: Bonasa um­bel­lus" (On-line). Ac­cessed 30 May 2001 at http://​www.​fs.​fed.​us/​database/​feis/​.