Ruffed grouse is a thickly feathered grouse of North America. It is famous for the drumming sounds that the male bird makes with his wings during the spring. He chooses a log for his drumming and perches on it daily early in the morning. For many years, naturalists thought that the bird drummed by beating his wings against the log, against his breast, or against each other. High-speed photographs have shown that the bird actually beats the air with his wings, creating a sonic boom. At first the sounds are dull and well spaced, but as the speed of the flapping increases, the drumming becomes a long roll. The sound of the ruffed grouse can be heard for a great distance.
A thick collar of feathers around the ruffed grouse’s neck gives the bird its name. During courtship, the male lifts these gleaming black feathers outward until they look like a ruff. Adult males are about 17 inches (43 centimeters) long. The ruffed grouse usually makes its nest at the foot of a tree. The nest may be formed from leaves and may contain from 9 to 14 eggs. The birds do not fly south in the autumn. In winter, the leg feathers of the ruffed grouse grow longer for warmth, and a weblike structure grows between its toes, enabling the bird to walk on top of snow. The ruffed grouse is the state bird of Pennsylvania.
