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Upland Game Birds

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Upland Game Birds Minnesota’s upland game birds include

ruffed, spruce, and sharp-tailed grouse, ring-necked pheasant, turkey, woodcock, and the gray partridge.

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The ruffed grouse – mixed forests

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The sharp tailed grouse and the prairie chicken in the open grasslands in summer and brush/woodlots in winter

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Spruce Grouse - northern conifer forests

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bobwhite quail – southeastern MN

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Bobwhite quail are no longer hunted in MN

Prairie Chicken lottery (186 in 2010)

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Upland Game Birds

The gray partridge (Hungarian partridge or Huns) and the Pheasant were both introduced.

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Upland Game Birds

– The wild turkey has been reintroduced

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Woodcock – Alder forests

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Upland Game Birds

Ruffed Grouse– The ruffed grouse gets its name from the

ruffs on the sides of its neck.– Ruffs are present on both sexes but are

larger in the male than the female.– Ruffed grouse are mistakenly called

“ruffled grouse”

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Upland Game Birds

– Of 1000 chicks hatched in a year• 45% survive one year• 19% survive two years• 8% survive three years• 4% survive four years• 1% will survive five years

– Up to 55% of the fall population die during 1st winter

– Hunters take a portion of this 55%.

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Upland Game Birds

Characteristics– The ruffed grouse is about half the size of

a pheasant.– Weighing between 1 and 1 1/2 pounds.– The grouse is noted for its fan shaped tail

marked by a broad, dark band.

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Upland Game Birds– Camouflage is its best protection against

predators– Uses patterns and mixtures of browns, blacks,

whites, and grays

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Upland Game Birds

– During winter grouse rely on snow roosts to survive from the cold.

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Upland Game Birds

– Grouse dive or burrow into deep fluffy snow

– Temps can be 20-30 degrees warmer than the air temperature

– Also protected from the wind– Winters with little/no snow are hard on

grouse survival rates

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Upland Game Birds

– Grouse wings are short and wide, and cup shaped

– Allows them to be a very fast flier, but only for short distances.

– Grouses bill is adapted for eating buds, twigs, berries, seeds, and leaves.

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Upland Game Birds

Color Phases– Many species of wildlife have various color

phases.– Red fox can be red, black, or crossed.– black bear can be black or brown.– Grouse also have color phases – There is a red phase, a gray phase, and a

mixture phase.

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Upland Game Birds

– An individuals bird’s color phase is partly controlled by genetics

– Gray more common in northern part of the range.

– Red in southern end

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Upland Game Birds

Determining Male/Female The sex of a ruffed grouse can be

determined by looking at the tail feathers.– Check the band on the two middle tail

feathers– Complete band = male– Incomplete band = female

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Male or Female?

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Male or Female?

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Upland Game Birds

– Another method is to pluck feathers from the lower back of the grouse. Count the number of white dots.

– Females one dot while – Males have two or more.

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Upland Game Birds

Determining Age– Ruffed grouse are separated into three age

classes.• Chicks, juveniles, and adults

– Chicks hatch in May or June and are noticeably smaller that the adults until they are about 10 or 12 weeks old.

– Ruffed grouse are capable of breeding at one year of age; then considered adults.

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Upland Game Birds

– Outermost flight feathers are a key to determining age.

– Grouse have 10 major flight feathers, called primaries, on each wing.

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Upland Game Birds

Habitat– Aspen-birch hardwood forest is typical

grouse habitat in MN, – Alder and patches of gray dogwood are

used by grouse in summer and fall.

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Upland Game Birds Management

– Aspen buds are primarily winter food for grouse and young aspen are important cover for broods

– To benefit grouse it is important to maintain aspen forest of three ages

• Stands of suckers less than 10 years old for brood cover

• Trees 10-25 years old for wintering and breeding cover.

• Older aspen for food, wintering, and nesting cover.

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Upland Game Birds

– IDEAL HABITAT can produce 1 bird every 1.25 acres

– Average habitat will have 1 every 4 acres– Poor habitat will have 1 every10 acres

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Upland Game Birds History

– Ruffed grouse are solitary.– A male grouse normally occupies a territory by

October of his first fall.– Territory area covers about 60 acres.– Usually each hen will range over territories of

two or three males

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Upland Game Birds

– Drumming can be heard at all times of the year

– In mid April, drumming becomes more active.

– Males advertise their location to interest hens, and their territory to other males.

– Drumming reaches a peak about the last week in April

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Drumming

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Upland Game Birds

Brood– After mating, hens disperse to find a

nesting site, which may be ½ mile from where they mated

– Nests are in an open forest near mature male aspen

– Hen will lay 10 – 14 eggs at a rate of about 2 every 3 days

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Upland Game Birds– The eggs hatch after about 23 days of

incubation.– Males play no role in nesting or caring for the

brood.– For the first couple of weeks the chicks feed

almost entirely on insects and then eat plant material

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Upland Game Birds

– It takes 16 weeks to become fully grown.– Toward the end of Sept broods break up

and the young scatter– Early season hunters may find broods

together before dispersal, or fall shuffle.

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Upland Game Birds

– Winter food consists primarily of the male catkins or flower buds of several species, aspen being most important.

– Sharp Shinned, Cooper’s Hawk and great horned owls are probably their biggest predators.

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Upland Game Birds

– Whether hunted or not hunted the grouse population usually drops about 55% though winter.

– About every 10 years they become very abundant and then decline sharply over a period of two or three years

– Over the past ½ century peak populations have usually occurred in years ending in 1, 2, 3 and the bottom of the cycle in years ending in 5, 6, 7.

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Upland Game Birds

– Reasons for grouse in population cycles have not been determined.

– In good habitat, fluctuation is less – Hunting does not seem to affect grouse

population cycles.