{"id":2144,"date":"2010-06-08T14:24:03","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T20:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/?p=2144"},"modified":"2016-11-25T08:38:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T14:38:00","slug":"they-taste-like-turpentine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/archives\/2144","title":{"rendered":"They Taste Like Turpentine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Copyright Andrew Spencer, April 2010, Boot Cove, Maine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Or so I’ve been told.\u00a0 Supposedly the only way that Spruce Grouse can get away with being so remarkably “stupid” is the fact that since they eat spruce needles they taste absolutely vile, vaguely reminiscent of turpentine.\u00a0 Since, obviously, I haven’t actually tried Spruce Grouse myself I can’t comment on what they actually taste like, but it certainly sounds like as good an explanation as any…\u00a0 However, despite their not tasting very good this is still a highly sought-after species, with a well developed reputation as a hard to find bird.\u00a0 Here is my take on how you can find one…<\/p>\n

Depending on who you ask, how to actually find a Spruce Grouse is a matter of debate.\u00a0 Some people say it’s easiest in the winter, when deep snow forces birds to the edge of the road.\u00a0 Others may say it’s in the later summer, when females herd their young through the spruce-fir.\u00a0 If you ask me, though, I would say that it’s in the early spring, when the muffled wingbeats of displaying males echo softly through the forest.<\/p>\n

First off, though, I should correct a common misconception about Spruce Grouse displays.\u00a0 They do NOT include extremely low pitched hooting, as has been reported in many sources (e.g., Sibley).\u00a0 This misconception apparently has its roots in and article by Greenwalt (1968), and this error has been echoed through many field guides until recently.\u00a0 The displays of Spruce Grouse (the males at least) are entirely non-vocal, and the low pitched vocalizations referred to in most sources apparently are in reference to Dusky or Sooty Grouse.<\/p>\n

I should also note that all the displays I write about below are in reference to the nominate subspecies of Spruce Grouse.\u00a0 The taxon found in the northwestern part of the lower 48 and adjacent Canada (“Franklin’s” Grouse) has a different display, and one I am not familiar with.<\/p>\n

The main display of male Spruce Grouse (and the loudest, and thus easiest to hear from a distance) is simply the sounds of the wings whirring as it flies from a perch about 15 feet in a tree to the ground, and then back up to the tree.\u00a0 The specifics of the wing noise varies, though, between the descent and the ascent: during descent the bird flies normally, until it nears the ground, when it suddenly rears up nearly vertically in the air and the pace of the wingbeats picks up noticeably.\u00a0 During the ascent the wingbeats are more powerful and faster, but even in pitch throughout the flight.<\/p>\n

While neither of these wing noises are especially loud, in the early spring boreal woodland (where there tends to be very little noise) it can carry for quite a distance and be a good way to find them.<\/p>\n

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Spruce Grouse flight display descent, Boot Cove, Maine, April 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nhttp:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/SPGR_descent.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n
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Spruce Grouse flight display ascent, Boot Cove, Maine, April 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nhttp:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/SPGR_ascent.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Once you’ve located the displaying grouse, if you watch it long enough you may well notice some other, quieter and more subtle displays.\u00a0 One that was frequently given by a bird I observed for a couple of hours in Maine consisted of the bird lifting both its wings about a quarter way to horizontal and then beating them against the sides of its body, producing a muffled but quite audible “thump”.\u00a0 This sound is apparently not described in BNA, but seems to be a quieter version of the two loud “gunshot-like” thumps of the display of “Franklin’s” Sprcue Grouse.<\/p>\n

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Spruce Grouse wing thump, Boot Cove, Maine, April 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nhttp:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/SPGR_wing.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

The other display that I observed from Spruce Grouse in Maine is what BNA calls the “tail-whoosh”, where the bird opens its tail and closes it rapidly, producing a slightly metallic swishing noise.\u00a0\u00a0 It is also surprisingly loud for a sound being given by just the tail of an otherwise stationary bird.\u00a0 Compared to the flight displays and wing thumps, the tail-whoosh is a rarely given noise, at least during my observations – I heard perhaps a half-dozen total during two hours.<\/p>\n

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Spruce Grouse tail-whoosh, Boot Cove, Maine, April 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nhttp:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/SPGR2010-4-4tail1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spruce Grouse, that is. Depending on who you ask, how to actually find a Spruce Grouse is a matter of debate. I would say that it’s in the early spring, when the muffled wingbeats of displaying males echo softly through the forest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behavior","category-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5082,"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144\/revisions\/5082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}