Ruffed grouse
Amazing fact
Ruffed grouse chicks are guided to feeding sites by their mother but feed themselves.
National Audubon Society
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Ruffed grouse chicks are guided to feeding sites by their mother but feed themselves.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Ruffed grouse
- Scientific name
- Bonasa umbellus
- Japanese name
- エリマキライチョウ
- Group
- Birds
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Phasianidae
- Genus
- Bonasa
A member of the grouse family, it lives in forests in North America from Alaska to Georgia.
It has a ruff of black feathers on its neck that is usually hard to see. Males raise it during courtship displays.
In spring, the male stands on a fallen log and beats the air with his wings, making a drumming sound that calls females.
How the Ruffed grouse lives
They look for food on the ground, in bushes, and in tall trees. In summer and autumn, they eat various fruits and berries. Tree buds are important winter food, especially in northern areas. They may move a short distance to denser vegetation for winter.
National Audubon SocietyBasic data
- Size
- Length: 41–48 cmWingspan: 56–64 cm
- Weight
- 480–740 g
- Diet
- Buds, twigs, leaves, flowers, catkins, berries and seeds
- Range
- Alaska to Georgia
Where the Ruffed grouse has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- エリマキライチョウ
- 简体中文
- 披肩榛鸡
- 繁體中文
- 披肩榛雞
- Español
- Grévol engolado
- Français
- Gélinotte huppée
- Deutsch
- Kragenhuhn
- Português (Brasil)
- Tetraz-de-colar
- Italiano
- Tetraone dal collare
- العربية
- طيهوج مطوق
- Русский
- Воротничковый рябчик
- Türkçe
- Yakalı Orman Tavuğu
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- National Audubon Society — Ruffed GrouseChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Bonasa umbellusChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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