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Friday, February 21, 2020

Ruffed Grouse

Today I had a new visitor in the backyard.  I was excited to see a new-to-me bird: a ruffed grouse.

I know they do live in my province, but I've not seen one in my area before, and I have never photographed one before today.  This one was trying to get at some berries left on some of the branches from last fall.  It climbed up on a branch for a while. 

The area behind my house is scrubby woodland, so it is difficult to take good photographs because of all the branches in the way.

When I looked up further information about the grouse, I learned that they also eat buds, so this bird may have been eating those as well.

The males make impressive displays during the spring to attract females, but when the birds are not displaying, it is very difficult to tell whether it's a male or female grouse, so I honestly don't know about this one.  But I was very pleased to see it come for a visit, and even more pleased that I managed to get at least a few shots that show the beautiful plumage of this interesting bird.