Birds

Grouse

Tetraoninae · also called grouse

Not Evaluated ↓ herbivoreomnivore Temperate forest Temperate grassland Mountains

A grouse is a bird built for the cold. It is feathered down to its toes, it can live all winter on nothing but conifer needles, and it roosts by diving into a snowdrift. In spring, the males of many species gather before dawn at the same patch of ground their ancestors used, inflate coloured air sacs, and boom and strut for an audience of hens.

Overview

Grouse are the subfamily Tetraoninae, around 18 species, within the pheasant family, all in the cold and temperate Northern Hemisphere — boreal forest, tundra, moorland, sagebrush, and prairie. They are plump, ground-dwelling game birds, mostly plant-eaters, and there are no grouse south of the equator.

Surviving the north

Grouse have feathers over the nostrils, legs, and toes, dive into soft snow to roost in an insulated chamber, and grow comb-like snowshoe scales on the toes each autumn. To live on resinous conifer needles and woody buds in winter they have an enlarged, microbe-filled gut with long fermentation sacs, and the capercaillie can survive months on pine needles alone. The three ptarmigan turn white for winter.

The lek

In many grouse, males gather each spring at a traditional arena, the lek, and each holds a small patch, inflating air sacs, fanning the tail, drumming and booming, while females visit only to watch and mate — usually with one or two dominant males — then leave to nest alone.

Status

Grouse as a group are Not Evaluated, trend decreasing. Several northern species remain common, but the sage-grouse of the western US are lost from much of their range as sagebrush is cleared, the lesser prairie-chicken is threatened, and the capercaillie is extinct in some countries and in steep decline, including a fragile Scottish remnant.

Grouse: common questions

What is a lek and why do grouse use one?

A lek is a traditional communal display ground where males gather to compete for the attention of females, who come only to choose a mate and get no other resource there, no food, nest site, or male help with the young. Each male defends a small patch within the lek and performs continuously through the dawn, and females sample the displays and mate mostly with one or a few top males in the centre. Lekking is thought to arise where males cannot monopolise females or the resources females need, so the best a male can do is advertise his quality directly. Sage-grouse and black grouse leks can hold dozens of booming, strutting males and are used year after year.

How do grouse survive winter in the far north?

By combining a specialised diet with heavy insulation and behaviour. Grouse switch in winter to the one abundant food available, the buds, catkins, and needles of birch, willow, and conifers, which they can digest thanks to an enlarged, microbe-filled gut. Their bodies are wrapped in dense feathers that extend over the nostrils, legs, and, in ptarmigan, the toes, and many species dive headfirst into soft snow and let it drift over them, roosting in a snow chamber several degrees warmer and out of the wind and out of sight of predators. Some grow temporary pectinations, comb-like scales, on the toes that spread the foot like a snowshoe on soft snow.

What is the difference between a grouse, a pheasant, and a partridge?

All three are in the pheasant family, Phasianidae, and grouse are usually treated as a subfamily, Tetraoninae, within it. Grouse are the cold-adapted branch, feathered to the toes, native to the northern forests and tundra, with no bare skin on the legs and often elaborate lek displays. Pheasants are larger, longer-tailed birds of warmer Asian forests and farmland, with bare legs, often spectacular male plumage, and many species now widespread as introduced game birds. Partridges are smaller, plumper, short-tailed birds of open country, also bare-legged, that typically live in family groups called coveys. The lines blur, and grouse, francolins, quail, turkeys, and junglefowl are all relatives within the same family.

Why do people talk about grouse shooting and grouse moors?

In Britain, large areas of upland heather moorland are managed specifically to produce high numbers of the red grouse, a subspecies of the willow grouse found only there, for driven shooting, in which lines of beaters push grouse over standing guns. Management involves rotational burning or cutting of the heather to create a mix of ages, control of predators such as foxes and crows, and treatment of the birds for a parasitic worm that drives their population cycles. Grouse moors are economically important in some rural areas and maintain the heather habitat, but the practice is contentious because of its effects on birds of prey, mountain hares, carbon-rich peat, and water, and because of illegal raptor persecution associated with some estates.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 10, 2026. Last updated September 10, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Tetraoninae
Diet: Almost entirely plant food as adults, heavy on the buds, catkins, needles, and shoots of birch, willow, and conifers in winter and berries, leaves, and flowers in summer, with the chicks eating insects for their first weeks, and the capercaillie able to live for months on pine needles alone
Winterised birds: Grouse are adapted for deep cold, with feathers covering the nostrils and the legs and, in the ptarmigans, the toes, dense plumage for insulation, the habit of diving into soft snow to roost in an insulated chamber, and, in some species, comb-like growths on the toes each autumn that act as snowshoes
A gut built to ferment needles: To extract nutrition from a diet of tough, resinous conifer needles and woody buds, grouse have a large muscular gizzard, a very long intestine, and a pair of long blind sacs called caeca full of microbes that ferment the plant fibre, and the gut lengthens in autumn as the winter diet approaches
The lek: In many grouse the males gather each spring at a traditional open arena, the lek, where each holds a small patch and performs, inflating coloured air sacs on the neck, fanning the tail, drumming, booming, and popping, while females visit to watch and mate, usually with just one or two dominant males, then leave to nest and raise the brood alone
Ptarmigan turn white for winter: The three ptarmigan species moult through the year between a mottled brown summer plumage and a pure white winter one, matched to the presence or absence of snow, and a spring bird caught between coats can be piebald, which is a liability when the snow melts early
The capercaillie is a turkey-sized grouse: The western capercaillie of Eurasian conifer forest is the largest grouse, with displaying males weighing up to about 5 kg, fanning the tail like a black turkey and making a bizarre song of clicks that speeds into a pop and a sound like a cork and then a wheeze, during which the bird is briefly deaf
Boom-and-bust populations: Several northern grouse, especially in the boreal forest, run through roughly ten-year cycles of abundance and scarcity, thought to be driven by the combined swings of their food plants, their predators, and parasites, and red grouse on British moors are managed intensively for shooting around these fluctuations
Range: The cold and temperate Northern Hemisphere, across the boreal and mountain forests, tundra, moorland, sagebrush steppe, and prairie of North America, Europe, and northern Asia, from the Arctic tree line and high alpine zones down into temperate woodland and heath, with no grouse native to the Southern Hemisphere.
Conservation status: Not Evaluated ↓ ≈ Not assessed as a group of around 18 species, and while several northern grouse remain common across huge ranges, a number are declining or endangered, with the greater and Gunnison sage-grouse of the western United States lost from much of their range as sagebrush is cleared and fragmented, the lesser prairie-chicken threatened, and the capercaillie extinct in some countries and in steep decline in others, including a fragile remnant in Scotland, from forest loss, deer fences, disturbance, and cool wet springs in the wild