Sounds
Spruce Grouse are among the most silent of all grouse, but they nevertheless have a number of calls used to warn of predators, to repel territorial intruders, to maintain brood cohesion, or to elicit brooding. In the subspecies franklinii, territorial males are notable for their wing-clap display. At the end of a short flight through the trees, the wings are brought together over the back so as to produce two sharp claps, about 0.5 s apart, loud enough to be heard by the human ear 150 m away. These territorial displays can sometimes be elicited by similar hand clapping, and can be used to detect male territories and estimate their density. Other non-vocal sounds include soft drumming by territorial males (a sound produced by the beating wings) and a tail-swish and a whoosh produced by the tail feathers in flight.
Read more about this topic: Spruce Grouse
Famous quotes containing the word sounds:
“The comedy of hollow sounds derives
From truth and not from satire on our lives.”
—Wallace Stevens (18791955)
“half-way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,
And hear above me on the autumnal blast
The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18091882)
“To me, the sea is like a personlike a child that Ive known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when Im out there.”
—Gertrude Ederle (b. 1906)