Minnesota birds

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Gerald McPherson

Does the same bird change color in phases?

No. They remain the same color for life that their genetics dictate.

The anomaly is that some birds like the ptarmigan do change with the deason depending on the level of daylight.




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[stumpstalker]

There is an article in POINTING DOG JOURNAL, entitled “A Tale of Tails”, by Ron McGinty, Sept./August 2017, about the variety of Ruffed Grouse coloration phases. Although a multiplicity has been identified, depending on the region, most birds fall into one of four basic categories.

Close examination of the tails is the key, and the author encourages us to “….look more closely at these birds, once in hand, and doing so, gain even more of an appreciation for the King of Gamebirds”.

I like this point of his and am instructed by it, as all too quickly when I have been fortunate enough to actually down one of these birds, my inclination (once I confirm that the bird is no longer suffering) is to bag it and get on with the hunt.

This adjuration echoes Lawrence R. Koller, in his Deer hunting classic SHOTS AT WHITETAILS, when on page 63 he urges readers to make a hobby of studying Deer in intimate detail to gain a full appreciation of the sport.

Attached is an inset from the POINTING DOG JOURNAL article.

Does the "cinnamon" variant being discussed here sound like # 2 on the list, the “Intermediate or (intermediate-gray)” phase, or is it it's own rarefication existing on the outer reaches of another one of the four categories?