Ptarmigans try sturdy members of the newest grouse family members one purchase most of its lifetime on the floor at or above the treeline. Three species are present inside the United states: this new Willow Ptarmigan Lagopus lagopus, the latest White-tailed Ptarmigan Lagopus leucurus, and also the Rock Ptarmigan Lagopus mutus.
Like other grouse, ptarmigans enjoys chunky bodies, short tails and legs, and you will quick, rounded wings. Willow Ptarmigans weigh regarding 450 to help you 800 g, White-tailed Ptarmigans weighing on the 350 grams, and you may Material Ptarmigans is advanced in proportions.
Most of the ptarmigans possess feathered foot, novel among chickenlike wild birds, and therefore boost their capability to walk in snow. They likewise have white wings throughout every season nalГ©zt. Inflatable yellow combs above the attention, being particularly evident in the territorial and you may courting guys, is inconspicuous to rarely visible in females.
Ptarmigans features around three regular plumages a year, as opposed to the a couple that will be common for some wild birds. This type of plumages contain the wild birds, particularly the women, better camouflaged constantly. While Light-tailed Ptarmigans has actually permanently white-tail feathers, this new tails away from Willow and Rock Ptarmigans continue to be black colored regarding year. During the cold temperatures, male-and several girls-Material Ptarmigans recreation a black stripe one to runs from eyes toward bill (because if they’d placed on charcoal masks to stop snowfall blindness), distinguishing them off male Willow Ptarmigans.
In the ptarmigans, the new moult, otherwise losing off dated feathers, starts with the head and you can progresses for the tail. When the spring snowmelt begins, lady moult on the a great barred reproduction plumage out of brownish, gold, and you may black. Female ptarmigans are hard to tell apart within the spring, but the total tones of White-tailed Ptarmigan girls is actually cooler when comparing to those of the fresh almost every other one or two species. Reproduction boys decrease their moult.
People moult their flight feathers (wings and you will end) gradually-retaining the capability to travel at all times-and simply once per year, always about low-reproduction area
Brand new Redhead Aythya americana is a proper-understood and you will commonly marketed Us diving duck. The fresh mature men is an enormous, grey-backed, white-breasted duck which have a purple-chestnut head and black neck and you will bust. They is similar to the bigger male Canvasback. At the intimate diversity, your face seems puffy, with a-sudden temple and you will a preliminary, large bill, given that Canvasback’s statement was lengthened and you may mountains off in the forehead. The fresh mature females is a huge, brown-backed, white-breasted duck with a brown head, whitish jaw, sudden forehead, small, wider expenses, and you may pearl-grey wing patches.
Ladies Girls with red hair, in the event big, could be mistaken for female Ring-necked Ducks and scaups
Inside autumn younger Girls with red hair end up like mature female, though the nipple plumage was incredibly dull gray-brownish, as opposed to white. Throughout November and you may December, the young start to build the newest mature plumage, which has nearly completely person during the because of the February.
New genus Aythya, to which the newest Girl with red hair belongs, boasts several species, all of which are adjusted to help you diving. You was rounded and heavy which have large feet, base set-back on your body, and you can an over-all bill. Human body molds include the top, long-necked, long-billed Canvasback into the brief-billed scaup. The fresh new genus are depicted inside the America because of the Canvasback, Girl with red hair, Better Scaup, Cheaper Scaup, and you will Band-necked Duck.
The brand new Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla, only about 29 grams within the weight and you can fourteen cm much time, is among the most Canada’s tiniest shorebirds. Their name originates from the newest partial webs ranging from their base. Women and men are the same within the instead simple brown otherwise grey plumage regardless if females is some big. The fresh varieties will likely be tough to identify off their brief sandpipers.
Semipalmated Sandpipers moult, or destroyed, themselves feathers twice a year. The change into greyish-brownish fall-cold weather plumage constantly initiate for the breeding foundation which can be accomplished immediately following arrival for the low-breeding town. The fresh new moult that occurs for the low-reproduction city in advance of spring migration gives them a somewhat brighter (more brownish) breeding plumage.