Spruce grouse – Falcipennis canadensis

The spruce grouse is also known as the Canada grouse.

It’s a medium-size grouse.  The male has a dark side as well as the throat and wide closet that covers the chest. The legs are feathered to the toes, which facilitates its progress in the snow in winter. The female is smaller than the male. The entire plumage has a brown and white mottled appearance. As the male, it also has a dark terminal tail band.

It is found in North America, just below the tundra zone of the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, England, near the Great Lakes, Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and the coastal mountains bordering the the state of Oregon. It lives on the edge of coniferous forests in the spruces, firs, larches, pines and cedars. It remains quite faithful to its native habitat and fails to seasonal movements in order to find additional food resources. It lives alone in the forest paths pecking open or roosting in dense areas in conifers.

It eats conifer needles, buds, berries, leaves, mushrooms, ferns, mosses, rushes reeds. It also consumes insects in spring and during the nesting season.

The female lays 4 to 11 eggs on the ground in a simple depression lined with mosses, grasses and leaves. The nest is usually built under the low hanging branches of a spruce. Hatching occurs after three weeks, and the chicks leave the nest at the age of 10 days.