Spotted Grouse
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Spotted
Grouse, Strigities
maculatus L 65-70 cm, WS 75-85 cm, Family:
Phasianidae
IUCN Status: Near
threatened (NT)
Description:
Large,
chicken-like bird with plump body, long square tail, stout legs, and small
head. Body brown overall with extensive white spotting in the wings and belly
and white undertail coverts. Males have black head and breast with faint blue
iridescence, intricate white spotting on nape, and bright red fleshy combs
above the eyes. Tail is dark brown with a light band at the tip. In display
males fan tail into a semicircle and spread their wings. Females are noticeably
smaller and more heavily patterned, especially in the tail and back. Females
lack the dark head and neck and eye combs, instead they have a white throat.
Spotted Grouse are the largest and heaviest grouse on Novasola.
Voice:
To
attract females and defend territories, males advertise with owl-like hoots in
phrases of four, followed by a bubbly phrase raising in pitch. Females
communicate with chicks through soft clucking. Both sexes will occasionally
cluck and will screech in alarm, sounding similar to a vinyl record scratch.
Range and Habitat:
Range
encompasses most of Novasola west of the divide and the Eastern Range. They are
infrequently found in the Twin River Basin and are absent from the outlying
islands. Spotted Grouse prefer mature forest ecosystems with dense understory foliage
and thick canopy like temperate rainforests, coastal conifer forests, lowland deciduous,
and montane conifer forests, with affinities for Coopers-fir, spruce, hemlocks,
firs, cedars, pines, and redwoods. Can be found at high elevations, up to the
tree line, and as low as sea level.
Discussion:
The
Spotted Grouse is the largest grouse native to Novasola, and between the second
and fourth-largest galliform, smaller than Turkey-pheasant and the two species
of sapphire pheasants, though the largest Spotted Grouse may outweigh smaller
pheasants. Despite their size, Spotted Grouse can be difficult to observe due
to their cryptic plumage, shy nature, and preferred habitat. Though found in
most forest ecosystems, Spotted Grouse favor dense conifer forests, especially
mature stands. Most common in the northwest and Western Range, they can also be
found in the Morning Mountains, but curiously not on Kosatka Island where they
are replaced by the Kosatka Pheasant.
The
genus name Strigities comes from the Latin Strigia for “owl”
which was given to the grouse because of its hooting calls which bear a
striking resemblance to owl calls. As a grouse, S. maculatus is part of
the Tetraonini subfamily within the Phasianidae familiy. Unlike the other
native grouse, but more similar to the pheasants, the Spotted Grouse is more
closely related to Old World species than those of North America. They are
especially closely related to Black Grouse and Capercaillies, though they
exhibit many significant differences, and fossils attributed to this genus have
been found in Siberia and Korea, suggesting the genus was once more widespread
in Asia and migrated to Novasola over the Bering land bridge before going
extinct on the mainland.
As
in many grouse species, including its close relatives, the Spotted Grouse
engages in a breeding strategy called lekking. During the early spring males
will congregate in areas called leks and begin displaying. Leks are usually
located in forest clearings or areas where the understory is sparce or low, and
grouse return to these same leks year after year. Some known lek locations have
been used for at least 150 years. Females arrive at the leks later and observe
the males. The males spread their fan-shaped tails, puff their bodies, spread
their wings and angle them forward, and bow their heads and extended necks.
They will do this while hooting and cooing Eventually the females choose which
males appear the fittest and will allow them to mate. Exactly what a female
grouse selects for when choosing males is not well known, but it is likely the
male’s ritual courtship dance signals the male’s strength, health, or other
desirable characteristics. Once mated, females depart the lek to build a nest. Males
are not involved with nesting or brood-rearing.
Like
other grouse, Spotted Grouse spend most of their time on the ground, preferring
to walk instead of fly. They are powerful fliers, however, and in extreme
circumstances have been recorded flying over 50 kilometers in one night. Most
of the time though they only fly when alarmed or escaping predators. At these
times Spotted Grouse will alight in trees and may be found high in the canopy.
They are the most arboreal of endemic grouse, and unlike all the others they
usually roost in trees at night. Spotted Grouse prefer dense forests with lots
of understory and canopy cover. Their diet consists almost entirely of plant
matter. During the fruiting season they will eat a wide variety of berries, and
for the rest of the year they prefer birch and alder buds and catkins, conifer
needles and cones, and young shoots, but will eat leaves, seeds, and stems of
other species.
Because
of their diet, which is highly aromatic, Spotted Grouse meat is generally considered
poor tasting at best and unpalatable at worst. For this reason, and their
proclivity for trees, this grouse is perhaps the least popular game bird to
harvest among hunters. However, the Spotted Grouse, or unignaqdiqak to
Yukandaluk people and káaxʼ in the Kuliquit language, is important to
many indigenous cultures and is hunted for its meat but mainly for its
feathers, especially the glossy breast feathers of males which are used in
ornamentation and ceremony. Some tribal dances even mimic the male courtship
displays.
A
symbol of sorts for Novasola’s conifer wilderness, the Spotted Grouse is more
often heard than seen, with its resonant hooting calls it is often confused for
far-away owls. With the exception of the ptarmigan, Spotted Grouse are likely
the least common grouse on the island.
“Spotted
Grouse are, as the name indicates, adorned in white spots across the breast, wings, and nape. Cocks have shiny black heads with sharp white markings and red combs
which flush brilliant during breeding. The hen, more modest in her attire, is
cloaked in mottled browns and russets—perfect camouflage amidst the fallen
leaves and bracken. Though she lacks the grandeur of the male, her plumage is a
masterpiece of subtlety, allowing her to move unnoticed through the forest as
she tends to her young.
Not
popular among sportsmen, the grouse is foul-tasting to most. I can attest to
this myself, having eaten vast quantities of the bird during my expeditions.
Days when a man returned to camp with other game were those most joyous. I have
found however, that a grouse killed in the late summer, during huckleberry
season, boiled with berries is far more agreeable.” – Manual to Novasolan
Birds, 1914.
“The
morning was still young when I first heard the [Spotted Grouse] cock’s call—a
series of low hooting at first hardly audible one’s attention is caught. It is
a sound that softly resonates through the forest by which the caller asserts
his presence to any rival males and potential mates alike. This is the prelude
to the magnificent lekking, a spectacle that few are privileged to witness.
From
my concealed position, I watched as ten or so cocks began their displays. With
wings outstretched and low and tail fully fanned, they strutted through a small
clearing, heads held out just above the ground. Their every movements exuding a
confidence of sorts that, while marvelous, is not without humor. Their bravado seemed
misplaced until I observed females joining the lek, first one then more and
more. Soon each male was occupied dancing for one hen or another, none of whose
attentions seemed particularly arrested. For each male however the intensity of
the display was palpable, as if the very air around him vibrated with his
energy.
At intervals the cocks would pause, scanning their neighbors for any sign of competition or interest from a hen. On several occasions that morning I watched two, sometimes three cocks drop their acts to combat each other, occasionally with a fearsome intensity. The ferocity of these battles would last only seconds before each party would halt and return to their original spaces to continue the dance.” – Native Birds of Novasola, 1912
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| Male display. Illustration provided by the Museum of Novasola. |