A few birds from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
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Rock Ptarmigan:Rock Ptarmigan Elciayuli The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced the Rock Ptarmigan, and not the Ruffed grouse, deserves the Yupik name Elciayuli, which translates as "the one who is really good at belching or burping." If you've ever happened upon one of these little fellas as you're climbing or skiing in the mountains above the treeline, you'll know what I mean. There are times when I was just rounding the comer of a big rock and suddenly one flew up right in front of my face, making the most god-awful belching noise and scaring me half out of my wits. In fact, the sound to me was more like the surprised growl of a grizzly bear, which added even more terror to the incident. Elciayuli is anything but a grizzly bear, however. If you follow the flight path of the bird, you'll see that it lands within a long stone's throw from where it originally flew up. If you're curious, and careful enough, you should be able to sneak very close to it. Then, depending on the time of year, and the sex of the bird, notice its coloring. In winter, white for both sexes. In summer, a lovely muted brown for the hen, and a mottled gray-brown and white for the male. In spring, however, the male has splotches of brown on its yellowish-brown tinged white feathers -- not as striking as the Willow ptarmigan's rufous head and neck feathers, but still very handsome. Which leads us into some of their interesting spring courting behavior. The first thing you'll notice is the male's sexy red eyebrows. These become swollen towards the end of winter as he looks for a hummock above what he hopes to be an adequate nesting territory for his future mate and family. From this hummock he advertises his availability to any prospective hen within visual and listening range. He does this by stretching his head out, raising and spreading his tail, and drooping his wings, all the while uttering a guttural croaking rattle (the "burping" of Elciayuli) followed by a quiet hiss, something like this: krrrr-karrrrr, wsshhh. He may even slide off the hummock on his breast, then roll over and leap into the air as he tries to impress the hen. Most of the time it works, although it is extremely rare for any human to ever witness either the courtship display or what follows, namely, the scratching out of a shallow hollow by the hen among the rocky debris on the mountain or in any tundra that might be present. She lines the hollow with grasses, mosses and feathers, then quickly gets down to the serious business of mating and egg laying. As many as 13 brown-splotched buff-colored eggs may be layed and, although the hen does all of the incubation, the male may stick around for the three weeks it takes for the eggs to hatch. He is definitely not as patient and dedicated a dad as his cousin the Willow ptarmigan, however, and often goes AWOL before hatching begins. As with all grouse, the hatchlings are precocial, that is, they are able to follow their mom away from the nest soon after pecking themselves out of their egg cases. They follow her everywhere among the talus and scree of mountain slopes and over the now greening tundra in search of wild berries, insects and spiders. She never feeds them, but shows them what to eat by eating the foods herself. The chicks are quick learners, and within two weeks are able to make short flights to escape any would-be predators lurking on the mountainside. In 10-12 weeks they are fully independent of their mother and must now fend for themselves. There is another Yupik name for the Rock ptarmigan, Elciayagaq, meaning "the dear little (or baby) burper," which perhaps is used to describe the Rock ptarmigan at this early stage of their development. I haven't mentioned it yet, but, yes, the Rock ptarmigan does have a scientific name, Lagopus mutus. Mutus means "silent," which it is at any time of the year outside of the breeding season (unless, of course, you happen to surprise it on a mountainside somewhere). Lagopus means "hare-footed," referring to the dense feathers that grow on its feet during the winter, similar to the fur on the paws of snowshoe hares. Of all the birds that must walk on snow to survive in winter, only ptarmigan and other grouse have evolved structures that make it easier to do this. Just before the onset of winter, most grouse acquire a fringe of scales along each toe, which enlarges the surface area of the foot. Ptarmigan have evolved a step further. They have developed highly modified dense feathering that covers both surfaces of their feet, and their claws grow much longer. In this way, winter foot feathering not only makes walking easier on snow, but also probably provides the bird with thermal insulation, much as bunny boots on snowshoes would do for us humans. Here's another interesting tidbit, and something you may have already suspected from what I mentioned earlier about feather coloring. You know that all birds molt. Well, all ptarmigan have three molts every year: a complete molt in fall to all-white plumage; a partial molt in spring to breeding plumage; and another partial molt later in the summer. Take a look in a good bird book and check these differences out.  |
