Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This wonderful bird is very easy to see if you know where they display, but is secretive most of the time when not displaying. Paler than Ruffed and Spruce Grouse, and found in more open habitat, in winter it can occasionally be seen feeding on buds in the same aspen trees as Ruffed Grouse, when those same trees form a border between field and forest. A very few lucky people see these at their feeders, but only in the right habitat.

Some organizations provide observation blinds at grouse display “leks.” The Friends of the Bird Sanctuary puts up a small blind at the lek near Solon Springs, Wisconsin: that’s where most of my recordings and photos of displaying birds were made. These grouse are declining because of loss of grassland habitat.