The ruffed grouse is a chickenlike bird that has brown, rufous, and gray color forms (morphs). Look for brown, rufous, and gray streaks, bars, and bands. Restoration efforts are ongoing in parts of east central Missouri.
Adults are streaked above and barred below; females generally have darker barring than males. The tail has a dark bar near the tip, but females lack the dark band on central tail feathers. Both sexes have a dark ruff on the neck; the male uses the ruff in spring to display to females. There is also a crest atop the head, though it sometimes lies flat.
Length: 17 inches (tip of bill to tip of tail).
Rare and local permanent resident statewide in appropriate habitat; most occur in the Ozark border and eastern Ozarks.
Habitat and Conservation
Ruffed grouse are found in forested landscapes, in areas with a thick, brushy undergrowth of shrubs and/or saplings. This habitat is often called early successional habitat, and it appears where a disturbance, such as natural or prescribed fire, creates an opening in the woodland canopy, allowing sunlight to penetrate to the land below.
In Missouri, habitat loss is a primary reason that grouse numbers have declined. They require different specific habitats during different parts of their seasonal cycle. The Missouri Department of Conservation is working to assist landowners to provide the habitat grouse need for food, cover, breeding, drumming, nesting, and overwintering.
- For more information on ruffed grouse habitat and conservation, and ways you can make your property more welcoming to grouse, visit MDC's Ruffed Grouse Management page.
Food
Primary foods include green leafy plants and various seeds and fruits such as wild grapes, tick trefoils, rosehips (such as from prairie rose), sumac berries, bittersweet, sedges, and bush clovers (for example, slender bush clover and round-headed bush clover).
Chicks feed mainly on insects to meet their high protein and energy requirements.
In winter, grouse feed on wild fruits and acorns, but the catkins of hop hornbeam trees are a major winter staple.
Status
Rare permanent resident. Restoration efforts are ongoing in parts of east-central Missouri. A species of conservation concern in Missouri.
Life Cycle
Males perform distinctive courtship displays at dawn and dusk in April, usually standing on a fallen log and making rapid forward wingbeats, which creates a low, pumping noise, with accelerating speed. Females are ground-nesters, usually laying about 6–8 eggs.
Human Connections
In states to our north and east, where their populations are larger and more stable, ruffed grouse are a favorite of hunters, in part because the birds are challenging, being difficult to see and preferring thick brush.
Ecosystem Connections
Habitat improvements that boost the populations of ruffed grouse are good for numerous other species of plants and animals as well.
About 350 species of birds are likely to be seen in Missouri, though nearly 400 have been recorded within our borders. Most people know a bird when they see one — it has feathers, wings, and a bill. Birds are warm-blooded, and most species can fly. Many migrate hundreds or thousands of miles. Birds lay hard-shelled eggs (often in a nest), and the parents care for the young. Many communicate with songs and calls.