Ruffed Grouse
(Adopted 1931)

This chicken-like bird of the woodlands with its fan-shaped tail flushes with a whir. Two color phases occur: gray and reddish. The latter is more frequent in the southern parts of its range, which extends across wooded Canada and south in forested country to the central Appalachians. Gray birds are typical of the Rockies; reddish birds of the Pacific states. The male's "drumming" suggest a distant motor starting up. The muffled thumping of the wings starts slowly, then accelerates into a whir.