Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) in winter plumage in Glencoe, Scotland (Photo By A S Begbie – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115432271)

Dear Readers, the ptarmigan is the UK’s only true mountain bird, found only in the Scottish Highlands, and becoming vanishingly rare even there. They are renowned for the way that their plumage changes, from a mottled brown which blends in perfectly with the heather-covered hillsides in the summer to pure white in the winter. Sadly, as the mountains of Scotland become warmer and snow falls less frequently, those white feathers become a liability rather than an asset, and the birds are easy pickings for the eagles that are their main predator.

Ptarmigan in summer plumage (Photo by By A S Begbie – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92497729), 

I have never seen these birds, preferring to walk in the mountains in the more hospitable summer months, but they are distributed across mountainous areas in Scandinavia, Europe, northern North America and Asia . During the breeding season, males develop rather fine red ‘eyebrows’ that remind me a little of Groucho Marx, but the colour seems to be directly related to the amount of testosterone that the bird produces, and may correlate to how aggressive the individual is to other male birds.

Male ptarmigan in breeding plumage (Photo By Daisuke Tashiro – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41916590)

The ptarmigan feeds throughout the winter, picking up everything from aspen seeds in North America to willow buds and catkins in Europe. Such a hardy bird! Its genus name, Lagopus, means ‘hare legged’ due to those feathery limbs, and the word ‘ptarmigan’ comes from the Scottish tàrmachan, which means ‘croaker’. So what’s with that strange ‘p’ at the start of the name, you might ask? Apparently it was added by Robert Sibbald because of the Ancient Greek word ‘pteron‘, meaning ‘wing’ (as seen in ‘pterodactyl’ for example, which literally means ‘winged finger’).

The recording below is of a ptarmigan from Lapland, recorded by Terje Kolaas – does anyone else think that it sounds like a fingernail drawn over a comb?

Actually, I can’t get enough of this extraordinary sound! Here’s another ptarmigan, again from Lapland, but this time recorded by Tero Linjama.

And finally, this one is of a displaying ptarmigan on Lake Mývatn in Iceland, with greylag geese, redshanks and redwings in the background. It certainly makes me want to rush off to Iceland. This was recorded by Patrik Äberg.

Honestly, what a truly amazing sound. How poor the mountains of the world would be without these birds around.

Ptarmigan in Norway (Male and female) Photo By Jan Frode Haugseth – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10534500

In Japan, the ptarmigan is known as the ‘thunder bird’, and because it has so few four-legged and two-legged predators it can be extremely relaxed around people. This is sometimes the case in the Alps too – I’ve seen photos of little flocks of white ptarmigan foraging around the skiers in Obergurgl. However, development for skiing can be detrimental to ptarmigan – one study found that breeding success was much lower in areas of the Cairngorms that were used for this purpose . Ironically enough, the lighter snow in the Cairngorms in Scotland might deter further construction of skiing infrastructure, and might prevent a further decline in this already beleaguered species.

Incidentally, in spite of its Red List status, it is still legal to hunt ptarmigan from 12th August (the so-called ‘Glorious Twelfth’) to 10th December. Words fail me, yet again.

Ptarmigan chick in Japan (Photo By Alpsdake – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33426292)