Description
The Willow Ptarmigan is a medium to large ground-dwelling bird and is the most numerous of the three species of Ptarmigan. Males and females are about the same size, the adult length varying between 35 and 44 centimetres (14 and 17 in) with a wingspan ranging from 60 and 65 centimetres (24 and 26 in). The weight is 430 to 810 grams (15 to 29 oz). It is deep-chested and has a fairly long neck, a broad bill, short feathered legs and a moderately short rounded tail. In the summer, the male's plumage is marbled brown, with a reddish hue to the neck and breast, a black tail and white wings and underparts. It has two inconspicuous wattles above the eyes, which become red and prominent in the breeding season. The female is similar in appearance but lacks the wattles and has brown feathers scattered among the white feathers on the belly. During winter, the plumage of both sexes becomes completely white, except for the black tail. Immature birds resemble the adults.
The Willow Ptarmigan can be distinguished from the closely related Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) by its larger size and thicker bill and by the fact that it is not generally found above the tree line while the Rock Ptarmigan prefers more elevated, barren habitat. The summer plumage is browner and in the winter, the male Willow Ptarmigan lacks the Rock Ptarmigan's black stripe between the eyes and bill. The White-tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura) in North America is smaller, has a white tail and finely-barred greyer plumage and lives permanently above the tree line.
The distinctive British Isles subspecies L. l. scoticus (Red Grouse) was once considered a separate true British species but is now classified as a sub-species. This moorland bird is reddish brown all over, except for the white feet, and is common across the north and west of Great Britain and in localised areas on Ireland.
The voice is low-pitched and guttural and includes chuckles, repeated clucking sounds, expostulations. When displaying, the male makes rattles and barking noises. When disturbed it flies off rapidly making a loud call that sounds like go-back, go-back, go-back.
Read more about this topic: Willow Grouse
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)