Crops & Breeds › Grouse & Ptarmigan

🍗 Ruffed Grouse

Grouse & Ptarmigan · breed reference

THE grouse of North America — the most widespread, the most hunted, the state bird of Pennsylvania, and the one every American who has walked an aspen cut in October has had blow up under their boots. THE DRUMMING IS THE THING, and it is misunderstood: the cock stands on a log and beats his wings against the AIR, not the wood, fast enough to produce a thumping sub-audible pulse that you feel in your chest before you hear it, and that carries a quarter mile through thick cover. He drums the same log for years. Aspen is the bird's whole ecology — buds in winter, young growth for cover — which is why ruffed grouse follow the logging cycle. WHY IT ISN'T FARMED: it is the closest thing here to a feedable grouse, and state game farms across the northern US and Canada still could not make rearing and release work — they tried for decades and gave it up. West Nile virus is the newer worry. A state permit is required, assume it is hard to get, and never take a wild bird or its eggs.