Food
The staple food is conifer needles, clipped directly from the tree, preferably the midcrown of pines though other conifers are exploited as well. In summer the birds can also forage on the ground, eating berries, green plants, fungi, and some insects. In winter, when only needles are consumed, the caeca (dead-end extensions of the intestines) increase in size to support digestion. The crop is also well developed: up to 45 cc of needles (about 10% of body mass) can be stored in the crop at the end of the day, to be digested over the duration of the night fast. Like other birds, spruce grouse consume grit or small stones to help their gizzard break down food. Chicks under 1-week old feed on insects and other arthropods, then switch to berries and fungi until the fall, when they start feeding on needles.
Read more about this topic: Spruce Grouse
Famous quotes containing the word food:
“When no food is given to the ear,
Then let a little be given to the stomach.”
—Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)
“Feed him ye must, whose food fills you.
And that this pleasure is like raine,
Not sent ye for to drowne your paine,
But for to make it spring againe.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
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—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)