Stocky, chickenlike grouse with a short bill and tail. Males and females are white in the winter with black outer tail feathers. Males have a more pronounced red eyebrow and a black stripe in front of the eye.
Stocky, chickenlike grouse with a short bill and tail. Breeding males have a red eyebrow and are mottled brown with a white belly.
Found in arctic and alpine tundra even during the nonbreeding season. Males and females molt out of their muted brown plumage in summer into white plumage for the winter.
Breeding females are mottled in brown and black with a small red eyebrow.
Males and females turn white in the winter. They have black outer tail feathers that are usually only visible in flight.
Found in barren rocky tundra.
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A plump chickenlike bird with a short neck, small head, small bill, and rather large, feathered feet.
Slightly larger than a White-tailed Ptarmigan, slightly smaller than a Willow Ptarmigan.
crow-sizedOrnithologists recognize many subspecies around the world. In general, they fall into two broad groups, one that nests in western Europe and northern Scotland (the “muta” group), the other in Asia, Iceland, and North America (the “rupestris” group). The populations that nest the farthest north, and those on the Aleutian and other maritime islands, tend to be the largest and darkest. It’s been suggested that two subspecies should be given full species status: the evermanni subspecies, found on Attu and Agattu in the Aleutian Islands, and welchi, which inhabits western Newfoundland. Because both differ strongly in plumage and size from other Rock Ptarmigan, evermanni and welchi were originally described as full species in the nineteenth century, by ornithologists Daniel Giraud Elliot and William Brewster.
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