Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis Canadensis) Damon Mccormick & Status: Special Concern (MNFI) R

Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis) Damon McCormick & Status: Special Concern (MNFI) R. Gregory Corace III

In his seminal work, Robinson (1980) referred United States within the northern Rocky Mountains, New England, and Upper Great to the Spruce Grouse as the “Fool Hen”, a Lakes (Boag and Schroeder 1992). As a species pejorative deriving from the species’ frequently closely associated with coniferous forests, its indifferent reaction to human approach. Across pre-settlement range and density within Michigan, however, such close encounters are Michigan was likely impacted by the comparatively uncommon. Breeding within widespread UP and NLP logging of the 19th coniferous forest ecosystems primarily within Century, with episodic establishment of the UP, the Spruce Grouse is behaviorally and appropriate habitat thereafter (Robinson 1991). audibly less conspicuous than the slightly larger The assessment of Barrows (1912), which Ruffed Grouse and ecologically distinct from reported a stable eastern UP population the Ruffed Grouse and the Sharp-tailed Grouse bordered by declines in the central UP and NLP, along a habitat continuum of closed-canopy roughly presaged the modern-day statewide coniferous forests to open lands. Similar to the distribution of breeding Spruce Grouse as female Ruffed Grouse, female Spruce Grouse determined by Atlas surveying. have drab plumage characteristics that provide excellent camouflage against a backdrop of dry Although the species is associated with a variety conifer needles; they are distinguished from of short-needled conifers across its entire North their Ruffed Grouse counterparts by a pale American range, extensive study by Robinson terminal band in their rectrices and by the lack (1969, 1980) suggested that a preferred UP of a raised crown when alarmed. Male Spruce habitat is stands of jack pine mixed with black Grouse are more dramatically feathered, with spruce and interspersed by small openings of black-and-white dorsal and ventral barring, a blueberries trailing arbutus, and decaying pale rufous terminal band and, most arboreal material. However, Robinson’s work prominently, a scarlet superciliary comb (Boag primarily dealt with one study site (the Yellow and Schroeder 1992). Dog Plains of Marquette County), while others

have frequently observed birds in a mosaic of Distribution boreal forest and more mature, mixed-pine The conterminous breeding range of the Spruce stands dominated by longer-lived red pine and Grouse extends across most of the Canadian and white pine within landscapes such as the Baraga Alaskan taiga, and dips into the contiguous

© 2011 Kalamazoo Nature Center Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis) Damon McCormick & Status: Special Concern (MNFI) R. Gregory Corace III Plains (Baraga County), Seney NWR MBBA I. In the UP, the Spruce Grouse was (Schoolcraft County), Raco Plains and predominantly located in discrete township- Whitefish Point (both Chippewa County) level clusters stretching eastward from (McCormick and Corace pers. obs.). Although southeastern Houghton and northwestern Iron the Spruce Grouse is a year-round state resident, Counties to central Chippewa and eastern some birds undertake short migrations (<11 km) Mackinac Counties. Most of these MBBA II between their summer and winter ranges zones of UP occupancy did not overlap with (Robinson 1980, Schroeder 1985). MBBA I results. For example, among the 13 confirmed UP townships of MBBA II, only Breeding Biology three registered Spruce Grouse during the first The breeding Spruce Grouse is predominantly a Atlas, and only one in a confirmed capacity. terrestrial Tetraonid, favoring perambulation Although total statewide block- and township- over flight (Boag and Schroeder 1992). Its level records from MBBA I to MBBA II rose largely herbivorous diet consists primarily of 29% and 26%, respectively, breeding conifer needles, with a preference for pine over confirmations actually dropped 5% and 22% spruce (Crichton 1963, Pendergast and Boag during the two periods of sampling. To the 1970). Nests, which in Michigan are typically neighboring east and north, Atlas results from initiated in late May, are bowl-like depressions Ontario (Cadman et al. 1987, Szuba 2007) lined with needles or leaves, and are usually suggest a similar broad-scale pattern of overall located at the base of a conifer affording population stability amid substantial shifts in overhead cover (Redmond et al. 1982, Robinson township-level occupancy. Owing to 1991, Boag and Schroeder 1992). The female difficulties in species detection based upon its incubates a clutch of four to eight eggs for behavioral and vocal characteristics, a note of roughly three weeks (Boag and Schroeder caution should attend the interpretation of 1992). Her precocial, downy chicks are capable regional and statewide Spruce Grouse of short flight within one week, but generally population flux between MBBA I and MBBA remain in broods for two to three months before II. autumn dispersal (Robinson 1980, Schroader and Boag 1985). Although a wide variety of Conservation Needs mammalian predators may take Spruce Grouse The lack of specific or absolute geographic eggs, predation of adults or their young is convergence in NLP and UP breeding evidence primarily limited to Accipiter raptors, across Atlases may reflect the dynamic nature of particularly the Northern Goshawk (Robinson the conifer-dominated habitat of the Spruce 1980, Boag and Schroeder 1992). Grouse. Historically, these forest ecosystems were maintained by an intricate relationship Abundance and Population Trends between forests pests and associated diseases Echoing MBBA I results, MBBA II surveying and abiotic disturbances, mainly fire (Frehlich determined the Spruce Grouse to be absent from 2002). The frequency and impacts of these the SLP, highly localized in the NLP, and events differed, however, over time, space, and broadly, if irregularly, distributed across the forest type. At Seney NWR, for instance, mixed eastern, central, and western-central UP. In the pine-dominated habitats utilized by Spruce NLP, the species was documented in only four Grouse were maintained during pre-European contiguous townships within the jack pine- times by low-severity surface fire events dominated convergence of Crawford, Ogemaw approximately every 50 to 60 years (Drobyshev and Oscoda Counties; the six total block-level et al. 2008). In the modern era, fire suppression NLP records reflect a 63% decrease from and the impact of other land uses have altered

© 2011 Kalamazoo Nature Center Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis) Damon McCormick & Status: Special Concern (MNFI) R. Gregory Corace III this regime, and the total area burned by each Crichton, V. 1963. Autumn and winter foods fire has decreased (Drobyshev et al. 2008). of Spruce Grouse in central Ontario. Conversely, areas dominated by spruce or jack Journal of Wildlife Management 27: 597. pine would historically expect fire frequencies Drobyshev, I., P.C. Goebel, D.M. Hix, R.G. that produced (rather than maintained) habitat Corace III, and M. Semko-Duncan. 2008. within this geographic range, as these fires were Interactions among forest composition, more likely stand-replacing canopy events structure, fuel loadings and fire history: a (Frehlich 2002). In recent times, the case study of red pine-dominated forests of management of jack pine and other conifer Seney National Wildlife Refuge. Forest species by even-aged silvicultural treatments Ecology and Management 256: 1723-1733. has become more comprehensively relevant for Frehlich, L.E. 2002. Forest stand dynamics Spruce Grouse conservation in Michigan. For and disturbance regimes. Cambridge example, if the maintenance of landscape-level University Press, Cambridge, UK. heterogeneity among coniferous forest types Monfils, M.J. 2007. Special animal abstract was more highly prioritized, the intensive, for Falcipennis canadensis (spruce grouse). broad-scale management of NLP and UP jack Michigan Natural Features Inventory, pine plantations for Kirtland’s Warbler could Lansing, MI. bird species (Corace et al. 2010). Nonetheless, sis.pdf>. Accessed 6 January 2011. future conservation efforts on behalf of the Pendergast, B.A., and D.A. Boag. 1970. Spruce Grouse and its coniferous habitats Seasonal changes in the diet of Spruce should not neglect or trivialize the value of Grouse in central Alberta. Journal of natural disturbance forces and events. Wildlife Management 34: 605-611. Robinson, W.L. 1969. Habitat selection by spruce grouse in northern Michigan. Journal of Wildlife Management 33: 113- Literature Cited 120. Robinson, W.L. 1980. Fool Hen: the Spruce Barrows, W.B. 1912. Michigan Bird Life. Grouse on the Yellow Dog Plains. The Special Bulletin. Michigan Agricultural University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, College. Lansing, MI. WI. Boag, D.A., and M.A. Schroeder. 1992. Spruce Robinson, W.L. 1991. Spruce Grouse Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis). In The (Falcipennis canadensis). In Brewer, R., Birds of North America, No. 5. (A. Poole G.A. McPeek, and R.J. Adams Jr. (eds.). and F. Gill, eds.).The Birds of North The Atlas of Breeding Birds of Michigan. America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. Michigan State University Press, East Cadman, M.D., P.F.J. Eagles, and F.M. Lansing, MI. Helleiner. 1987. Atlas of the Breeding Schroeder, M.A. 1985. Behavioural differences Birds of Ontario. University of Waterloo of female Spruce Grouse undertaking short Press. Waterloo, Ontario. and long migrations. Condor 85: 281-286. Corace, R.G. III, P.C. Goebel, and D.L. Schroeder, M.A., and D.A. Boag. 1985. McCormick. 2010. Kirtland’s warbler Behaviour of Spruce Grouse broods in the habitat management and multi-species bird field. Canadian Journal of Zoology 63: conservation: considerations for planning 2494-2500. and management across jack pine habitat types. Natural Areas Journal 30: 174-190.

Szuba, K. 2007. Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis). In Cadman, M.D., D.A. Sutherland, G.G. Beck, D. Lepage, and A.R. Couturier (eds.). 2007. Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario: 2001-2005. Environment Canada, Ontario Field Ornithologists, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ontario Nature, Toronto, ON.

Suggested Citation

McCormick, D., and R. Gregory Corace III. 2011. Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis). In Chartier, A.T., J.J. Baldy, and J.M. Brenneman (eds.). 2010-2011. The Second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. Kalamazoo Nature Center. Kalamazoo, MI. Accessed online at: .