Ruffed grouse, the state bird of Pennsylvania

How to recognize it

The ruffed grouse is a chicken-like forest bird about 16 to 19 inches long, weighing around a pound and a half. It is brown above, flecked with white and black, with dark brown bars across a pale breast; there are gray and reddish, or cinnamon, color forms. A ruff of glossy black feathers on the neck stays mostly hidden except during displays, and the fan-shaped tail has a broad dark band near the tip. Males are slightly larger, with a bigger ruff and an unbroken tail band; females have shorter tails with a band broken in the middle.

Drumming

In spring the male grouse claims a log or rock and “drums,” beating his wings to make muffled thumps that start slowly and speed up into a whir. The sound carries through the woods, and early spring, in March and April, is the best time to hear it.

How it lives

Grouse eat buds, leaves, catkins, fruit, nuts and seeds, adding insects in summer, and in winter they rely on the buds of aspen, birch, cherry and similar trees. They mostly walk and rarely fly far, and in cold weather a grouse may roost buried under the snow. The species lives in deciduous and mixed forests with clearings and thick undergrowth, from Alaska and Canada south through the Appalachians to Georgia, making it North America’s most widespread grouse.

Where to see one in Pennsylvania

The ruffed grouse lives across Pennsylvania all year, wherever young, brushy forest is available; it does best in forest less than about 20 years old. Listen for drumming males in the woods in March and April.

A bird in decline

Worldwide the ruffed grouse is a species of least concern, but in Pennsylvania the Game Commission reports long-term declines in flush rates, brood sightings and the number of young birds since the 1980s, and it has identified West Nile virus as a significant cause of death.

The state bird since 1931

A law of June 22, 1931, named the ruffed grouse Pennsylvania’s state game bird, and state agencies now present it simply as the state bird. Early settlers relied on it, calling it the partridge, as a source of food.