Ruffed grouse are a large, non-migratory bird of the northern forests. They are northerners especially these days as they’re in short supply in areas like the Appalachian Mountains where they were once plentiful. In Indiana, they have been on the state endangered list since 2020. Nonetheless, they are plentiful in the northern portions of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They are called grouse, partridge, pats, or, by the opinionated, the king of upland birds. Usually, people will see grouse on the sides of two tracks while driving. These birds might be filling their crops with sand and gravel or taking advantage of food sources. Otherwise, you can see their explosive escape flights if you move too close.
In the title, I said the grouse is a bird in search of heaven. Why? Let’s start with describing what heaven is to a ruffed grouse. If we define grouse habitat as aspen birch forests aged between 10-25 years then there is probably more grouse habitat today than before European settlement. But there is less aspen birch forests than there were previously. Grouse benefit from disturbed forests and so benefited greatly from the ecosystem disruption caused by early foresters and farmers. However, many of these forests have now matured and natural disrupters like fires and flooding have been surpressed. Further, I believe many modern land management processes are too ‘orderly’ to create a surplus of plant variety and micro-habitats that I describe below.
We’ll begin with finding food, which I don’t think is the hardest thing for the grouse. Grouse eat many different things and this will change throughout the year. I’ve read that grouse chicks eat mostly insects but I’ve observed that the adults will also. I’ve observed young grouse that move in groups (no doubt near their mothers) in early successional forests less than 10 years old. The tree canopy in the summer conceals them from predators while they scurry around and search for food. As later summer and fall come, fruit and nuts might be in abundance depending on the area and the year. Cherries, crabapples, wintergreen berries, rasberries, and acorns fill their crops. They can swallow surprisingly large objects.
As the weather fades further into fall, leaves and tree buds comprise more of their diet. Like their neighbors whitetail deer and beaver, grouse rely on browse (leaves, buds, and twigs) for their diet especially in the winter. Each species has its own way of getting browse. For deer, younger forests and trees are all but essential for winter browse. The twigs must be lower than a deer standing on her rear legs for her to reach. In mature forests around me, surviving hardwood saplings will show evidence of browse from deer everywhere you look. Beavers on the other hand have adopted another strategy: they cut down the tree. Then they cut the branches off and store them underwater around their lodge so they can swim out and eat them after ice-up.
Grouse themselves can fly. They fly to the tops of relatively mature aspen, birch and other trees, break off the buds along with a centimeter of the twig, and swallow them whole. With these buds they will survive the winter or any hard time otherwise. I think they prefer older trees because it’s easier to sit on a thicker limb while they eat the buds. Further, the bud density is probably thicker per acre compared to younger trees. Finally, there may be some sort of nutritional value to the older buds. Regardless, with only older trees, the birds will not survive long as grouse are a meal for birds of prey such as hawks.
Hawks are the reason some people associate grouse with monoculture 10-20 year aspen stands. I suppose aspen is their key tree. Aspen grows in colonies with closely placed vertical poles. In the introduction, I mentioned the explosive escape flight of the grouse. Grouse accelerate in flight at mind bending speed and switch direction around aspen poles with amazing ease. They intentionally place trees and obstacles in the paths of pursuing predators like hawks. This flight defines the grouse like no other aspect of the bird and on a calm day I can hear their wing beats from 100 yards. In fact, male grouse are capable of producing literal sonic booms with their wing beats during drumming displays. Grouse are more prone to flight than any other similar bird I’ve observed, sometimes bolting into flight 50 yards away. Contrary to common belief, however, I’ve seen them run on foot if given a chance. Sometimes, they run to gain distance and then fly explaining some of the far 50 yard flights I’ve observed.
While aspen poles provide great cover for a fleeing birds, other trees provide better overhead concealment. Scrub oak trees provide dense overhead leaves and around 1/3-1/2 of the dead leaves still cling to the trees clear to the spring of the year. Jack pines, red pines, and white pines provide roosting trees, concealment, and protection from the weather. I rarely observe birds in monoculture pine forests (especially jack pine), but they will frequently be found when pines blend into hardwoods. Around me, white birch and cherry trees are some of the other tree species that fill out their habitat.
Clearly, a grouse is a bird of many needs. Yet, it’s said that if the birds had their way they would live their entire adult lives in a 10 acre home range. This may be the heaven they search for, but I’m convinced that few live to find it. The books will tell you that young birds disperse from their mothers in late August and settle into a home range by mid to late September. I believe that they may find a spot they think is heaven within a month. But soon they find otherwise. The woods in the north country changes rapidly in the fall. Where you find heaven one week, you will not two weeks later. Fruits quickly ripen, rot, or are consumed by a variety of wildlife. Leaves fall removing overhead cover.
There’s a 10 acre plot I know that only has a grouse or two most of the year. But for a couple weeks in November, it might hold a dozen. Young birds flee here as the leaves fall and the fruit crops are exhausted. Soon they discover that this small plot will not support all of them and disperse again. But it doesn’t end there. I’ve found 10 grouse hiding under one pine tree in December. This nonlinear dispersal path seems to continue as grouse disperse and come back together in choice locations. Winter progresses and these young grouse dwindle moving place to place and falling prey to predators. It’s a common sight in March to find a pile of grouse feathers that used to contain a grouse.
So what is it that the survivors find? I suppose they move until they find a place they no longer find need to move from. Ideally, they find a place with an abundance of 10-20 year old trees. Aspen are preferred but birch, scrub oak, and some pine will suffice. Often, all four will be present. These protect the birds from predators year around. This may be the most important thing for grouse, but there is more to be had. Like most animals, grouse thrive when surrounded by a large variety of trees and plants as a variety is what fulfills the most of their needs. This is especially important for a bird with such a small home range. For instance, mature aspen and other trees, fruits, nuts, and openings with spring/summer forbs (weeds) provide a year around diet. Hens will also need areas where chicks can explore and hunt for insects. Males will need logs from mature fallen trees to drum (perform mating displays) on and attract mates. The males and females that find all of these things in proximity will mate in the spring and the hens will raise healthy offspring through summer.
I’ve heard many people who think that grouse hide in the middle of expansive aspen thickets. I disagree that this is their natural behavior. This is likely their behavior after they have been driven away from their preferred locations by hunters and other predators. Grouse frequently sit within 0-50 yards of the edges of aspen thickets. This might be the boundary of aspens and older aspens, pines, or another tree species. More likely, it will be a forest road, waterway, clearing, or forest opening ranging from the size of a living room to 10 acres. I’m not certain why openings attract grouse like they do. Most likely, the sunlight that penetrates these openings year around provides a wider variety of food sources due to more levels of forest sucession. Hillsides are another favored spot for grouse to sit.
Given the grouse’s specialized needs, non-migratory nature, small ranges, and dispersal habits, it’s no surprise that grouse have struggled in fringe areas of its range. They have evolved into an ecological niche that is threated by the suppression of the forest fires and floods that create their habitat and reduction in clearcut logging that replaced many of these processes. Human forest management tends to create monoculture forests, not the chaotic, mixed habitats that grouse and other species call home. When there isn’t enough of this habitat nearby, young grouse will never find the heaven they search for.
Below are pictures taken in close proximity in a favorable grouse habitat, showing a few rooms in a mansion fit for the king:
