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Rock Ptarmigan

Rock Ptarmigan

Lagopus muta

Identify the Rock Ptarmigan by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Rock Ptarmigan is a hardy Arctic grouse of windswept tundra and rocky mountains, known for turning snowy white in winter and mottled grey-brown in summer. It breeds across the Arctic, with scattered alpine populations further south, such as in the Pyrenees, the Alps and Japan, and usually stays year-round. In spring males give rattling calls and perform display flights.

Did you know?

  • In Japan it is called raichō, the “thunder bird”, and is protected nationwide.
  • It burrows into snow to make a shelter that stays warm in extreme cold.

Voice

Sound

About the species

Identification

Slightly smaller and slimmer than Willow Ptarmigan. In summer the plumage is mottled brown and on average more yellowish than in Willow Ptarmigan; in autumn the male's back turns greyer. The belly and underwings are white year-round, and the tail has black feathers. In winter both species are white, but the male Rock Ptarmigan shows a clear black lore stripe between the eye and bill (not in females or Willow Ptarmigan). The call is a dry, croaking rattle.

Family

Phasianidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

white, grey, black, brown

About the habitat

Open, stony tundra and rocky mountainsides above the shrub line – blockfields and windswept ridges; in severe weather it may move to sheltered valleys.

Diet

Buds and catkins of dwarf willow and birch in winter; in spring and summer leaves and flowers of tundra plants, later berries and seeds. Chicks also eat insects, larvae and snails.

Behaviour

Trusts its camouflage and prefers to run rather than fly; flights are short, usually gliding downhill. In winter it gathers in flocks and roosts in snow burrows. Males give rough, snoring rattles and perform flight-and-glide displays with fanned tails in late winter and spring. In remote areas it can be remarkably tame.

Sources

Photo: Daisuke Tashiro, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lagopus muta japonica Mount Tsubakuro.jpg

Sound: Unknown, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ptarmigan_(Lagopus_mutus)_(W1CDR0001418_BD38).ogg

Text: Wikipedia (English) + GBIF regional observations + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; GBIF occurrence data; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_ptarmigan

See also