Ruffed Grouse

Bonasa umbellus

The ruffed grouse is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is the most widely distributed game bird in North America. It is not migratory. It is the only species in the genus Bonasa. The ruffed grouse is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "partridge", an unrelated phasianid, and occasionally confused with the grey partridge, a bird of open areas rather than woodlands. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 5,365 times across 35 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 20°C (typically 18 to 23°C, from 5 areas). That holds across 15° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in North America ranged from 46°N in November to 57°N in August, about 1,200 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.