#white tailed ptarmigan

[todaysbird]

the white-tailed ptarmigan, also known as the snow quail, is a mountainous-dwelling bird and the smallest member of the grouse family. they are found at high altitudes in the continental united states, canada, and alaska. they have distinct ‘cryptic’ plumage, meaning that their plumage differs drastically throughout the year; during warm summers, they are speckled brown and black, going through an intermediary mottled phase before fully molting into their snow-white winter plumage. they primarily feed on insects and plant matter. their eggs are laid in a simple depression in the ground; the chicks are precocial and leave the nest soon after hatching.

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: White-tailed Ptarmigan

Photo: Doug Greenberg

"Far above timberline in mountains of the west lives this elusive little ptarmigan, the smallest member of the grouse family in North America. While the other ptarmigan are strictly northern, this one follows the cordillera of the high Rockies as far south as New Mexico. Easily overlooked, it may crouch motionless as hikers pass close by."

- Audubon Field Guide

[proton-wobbler]

Semifinals, Poll 5

White-tailed Ptarmigan vs Sickle-winged Nightjar

sources under the cut

White-tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura)

Lagopus is derived from Ancient Greek, meaning "hare foot". This is due to the heavily feathered legs and feet of ptarmigan.

eBird sightings: 5,809; IUCN Redlist Rating: Least Concern

Also known as the Snow Quail, this is the smallest bird in the grouse family. It serves as an indicator species for alpine tundra, and thankfully continues to fill a large range of western North America. The English name "ptarmigan" is Scottish Gaelic in origin, with 'tarmachan' meaning "croaker", referring to the bird's frog-like call. The p- was added due to a mistaken belief the word was Greek in origin, with the thinking being that the word related to 'pteron', "wing".

Sickle-winged Nightjar (Eleothreptus anomalus)

Eleothreptus, from Ancient Greek, means "marsh bred"

eBird sightings: 267; IUCN Redlist Rating: Vulnerable

There is not a lot of information on this bird, as nightjar are already cryptic and the common distribution of this bird hasn't been fully studied. They're currently found in northeastern Argentina, southern Paraguay, and southern Brazil. The Sickle-winged Nightjar shares its genus with a single other nightjar, which is also sparsely distributed across South America.

Images: Ptarmigan (summer - Garrett Hughes, winter - Josiah Verbrugge); Nightjar (wing - Kristof Zyskowski, body - Martjan Lammertink)

[soren-barnowl]

White-Tailed Ptarmigan

July 1, 2024

Nikon Coolpix P900

[birdirectory]

white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura) by Greg Lavaty

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

 In response to a petition and litigation by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today protected the Mt. Rainier white-tailed ptarmigan as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The agency also said it would reconsider protecting the bird’s critical habitat, providing hope that areas where ptarmigans live may be protected.

“These beautiful winter birds are immediately threatened by our warming world,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center and author of the petition to protect the ptarmigan. “Like a canary in a coal mine, the ptarmigan is telling us that we’re losing the snowpack that keeps Washington’s streams cool and flowing throughout the summer. It’s alarming and we have to protect these birds and the places they live.”

The ptarmigan lives year-round above the tree line in the Cascades from southern British Columbia to Mt. Adams in southwest Washington. In winter, they rely on dry, fluffy snow to bury themselves and stay warm. Climate change is resulting in more rain-on-snow events that create hard crusts unsuitable for the bird. In summer, ptarmigans prefer wet meadows created by melting snowfields and glaciers that are rapidly disappearing.

The tree line is also moving up and threatening to eliminate the bird’s meadows altogether. Ptarmigans are poorly adapted to warm temperatures, showing stress above just 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Center first petitioned for protection of the ptarmigan in 2010. It’s taken the Service 14 years to provide protection, when under the law it should have taken just two years.

“Our world is changing and changing fast,” said Greenwald. “The Service continues to move at a glacial pace to protect species like this highly imperiled bird. The agency desperately needs an overhaul to make sure we don’t lose so many vulnerable plants and animals.”

[birds-in-posts]

Rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta)

スニーカーライチョウ

Ptarmigan wearing sneakers

[herpsandbirds]

White-tailed Ptarmigan, (Lagopus leucura)

Loveland Pass, Colorado, USA

What a lovely and elegant bird!

[lizardsaredinosaurs]

And a PARTRIDGE* in a PEAR TREEEEEEE!!!**

Mt. Rainier White-tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura rainierensis)

Cascade Mountains of Washington, USA and British Columbia, Canada

Status: Threatened

----

This ptarmigan subspecies was given protection in the USA this year. 🎉

*not technically a partridge **pear trees are not native to the Cascade mountains

[b-rke]

White-tailed Ptarmigan; Snowfield; Baby grouse [unidentified species]

North Cascades, Summer 2024

[visit-ba-sing-se]

Birbvent - 15. Door, White-tailed Ptarmigan 🏔️

Another ultimate bird for the cold season awaits: It's the White-tailed Ptarmigan! In winter, they lead a sedentary lifestyle in order to conserve precious energy by avoiding flight (which, honestly same). However, they are so well adapted to the cold that warm weather stresses them out. When the temperature tops 70°F (21°C) they may bath in the snow just to cool off.

Source for the pictures ❄️ Open the previous door!

[juustozzi]

here it is - a fan design for the finnish national team in i11 universe!

I tried to add as many references to birds and finland as I could, and I'll put them under a cut if someone's interested!

general team notes:

our actual national soccer team is named Huuhkajat (the horned owls) after a horned owl that one day randomly started to live in the team's home stadium building - hence the team name and bird theme

that owl got named Bubi, and this team's coach is based on him

general team hissatsu are themed after owls or famous finnish things

all the players are based on the official(?) regional birds

Tuoni:

based on a whooper swan (laulujoutsen), which is the national bird (captain status)

hissatsu is named after a famous finnish song (literal translation: a swan song)

name comes from the swan of Tuoni; a swan that swims in the river to afterlife in Kalevala, and anyone who harms it will die

Ukko

based on a wood grouse (metso)

hissatsu is a reference to a famous painting "Taistelevat metsot" which decipts two grouses battling

name means an older man or a guy, and the male bird is also called "ukkometso"

Erne

based on a white-tailed eagle (merikotka)

name is from the first finnish-built space craft part, and the symbol of the project was a white-tailed eagle

Tintti

based on a blue tit (sinitiainen)

"tintti" is a general nickname for tits (the birds), but also the finnish name for Tintin

Pukki

based on Teemu Pukki, probs the most famous finnish soccer player

and his last name literally means a goat (vuohipukki)

that's all

Kopek

based on a willow ptarmigan (riekko)

most grouses in northern finland make a coil/a nest in the snow for warmth and safety from predators, and his hissatsu is directly borrowed from that

name is literally the sound the bird makes (kopek-kopek-kopek..)

Hakkinen

based on a western jackdaw (naakka)

name is an historical name for the bird, and Häkkinen is a common family name here

Apus

based on a common swift (tervapääsky)

name comes from the latin name (apus apus)

Juha

based on a white-backed woodpecker (valkoselkätikka)

name is.... based on a teacher I had, who was called both Juha and literally a woodpecker.... (this is an inside thing for just me sorry)

Suo

based on a common crane

hissatsu comes from an old belief of cranes carrying the weight of the sky, and they're the most notable species that fly in wedges

name means literally a swamp, which has been the best place to spot cranes here

Valokainen

based on a black-throated loon (kuikka)

name is from an old finnish poem singer, Elessei Valokainen. A loon is in an important role in the earth-diver myth that tells the creation of the world, and Valokainen's story of it from 1908 has been recorded

I also forgot to wrote it in the image but want to mention, these birds have the most iconic cry on summer lakeside evenings, so Valokainen has a laugh that kinda sounds like that

[splatixboi]

Follow up for the Hualian Bird Headcanon post (that I’d recommend reading here if you haven’t already!)

Remember how I mentioned I’d probably make a follow-up Poll with the suggestions I got in the previous post? Well, here it is!

I will do the Polls separately, find Hua Cheng’s bird poll here!

First up for the Follow-Up Poll is: Xie Lian!

I've added the birds that were suggested, along with a few of my own choices. Though read carefully: Some of these birds may not seem fitting look-wise, but that's because they're fitting in terms of behavior instead. So if in doubt, look them up real quick. (:

Here's a photo reference for the poll options!

[proton-wobbler]

Round 2, Poll 21

White-tailed Ptarmigan vs Regent Honeyeater

sources under cut

White-tailed Ptarmigan

eBird Sightings - 5,592

IUCN Status - Least Concern

Location: North America - Alaska to Washington, with disjunct populations in the Rockies

“I like their plumage changes throughout seasons and their feathered feet”

Regent Honeyeater

eBird Sightings - 1,375

IUCN Status - Critically Endangered

Location: Australia - extremely patchy in Southeast Australia, in New South Wales and the very southern tip of Queensland

“they are critically endangered, they look like they’re edged with gold, and their eye/beak area looks like a bee to help them camouflage, I mean come ON”

Images: Honeyeater (Liam Murphy); Ptarmigan (Andrew Spencer)

Stats pulled from Birds of the World

[soren-barnowl]

White-Tailed Ptarmigan

July 1, 2024

Nikon Coolpix P900

[outofangband]

Birds of Thargelion

After this I just have Maglor’s Gap and that will complete my series on birds in the Fëanorian realms pre Amon Ereb!

Flora, fauna, geography and environment of Arda Masterlist

Thargelion was the realm of Caranthir, located in the north east of Beleriand just north of Ossiriand and bordered by the Ered Luin, the eastern stretch of mountains that divided Beleriand from the rest of Middle Earth

As always this is not a definitive list! Please feel free to ask more or give me a more specific category!

Around Lake Helevorn and the rivers: Red-breasted merganser, mute swan, white tailed dipper, whooper swan, smew, little grebe, red throated loon, common crane, mallard, common white eye, northern shovler, green winged teal, corn crake, spotted crake, black winged stilt

Mountains: bearded vulture, water pipit, golden eagle, kestrel, peregrine falcon, Rock ptarmigan, common siskin, alpine accentor, northern wheatear, ring ouzel, white tailed eagle, chough, spotted nutcracker, Citril finch, griffon vulture, common redstart, common raven, wallcreeper, common jay, boreal owl, white winged snowfinch, crag martin, common redstart, black redstart

Foothills and forests: black grouse, wood grouse, goshawk, grey white fronted goose, hazel grouse, little bunting, meadow pipit, tree sparrow, hedge warbler, Bohemian waxwing, common kestrel, long eared owl, little owl, marsh tit, coal tit, mourning dove, rock pigeon, woodchat strike

World building notes

-Like most of the Noldor in Eastern Beleriand, many of Caranthir’s scouts keep birds of prey. In Thargelion these are primarily peregrine falcons and kestrels. Hunting with birds was less common however.

--There are populations of Green Elves who live in Thargelion, primarily in the mountains and near the border of Ossiriand. Though they also do not use birds for hunting, certain species are kept as companions or messengers.

-Chicken breeding as an art and science developed during the Watchful Peace. Chickens in Thargelion are appraised for long plumage and colorful feathers. Their eggs are eaten but they are not often used for meat.

-Chickens, peacocks and quails were kept by the Noldor of Thargelion, techniques of raising and breeding them were learned from Sindar and Silvan cultures of Eastern Beleriand. Indeed the Noldor of Thargelion were one of the only Noldor populations to keep quails.

-Bearded vultures appear on the crests of some of Caranthir’s lords and were even kept by a few of them

-Feathers of various mountain birds especially eagles and ouzel appear in wood carvings as an architectural motif during the Watchful Peace in Thargelion

-Out of all the Fëanorian realms, water birds appear most often in art and other cultural references in Thargelion as Lake Helevorn and its wildlife are a central facet of life there especially in times of peace. Wading birds like crakes, cranes and stilts are especially Valued.