DESCRIPTION

Wings and belly always white. Paws and fingers heavily fledged. Pure white winter plumage, black tail and beaks, black eyebands in the male. Brownish breeding plumage, red caruncles especially in males. Fall plumage marbled with gray. At the beginning and at the end of winter, spotted with white. Wonderfully camouflaged in any season.

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HABITAT

Common species of mountainous regions. Niche in the Alps and Pyrenees, usually between 2000 and 3000 m altitude. Species perfectly adapted to the life in high mountain, the rock ptarmigan is a bird which lives all the year in the stony regions beyond the forest. He frequents the scree, the combes where the snow lingers, the lawns and the heaths of altitude.

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WAY OF LIFE

The rock ptarmigan is observed in pairs in summer, in winter. To spend the night in winter, birds often look for snow-covered surfaces where they dig depressions or even cavities in the insulating snowpack. In winter white plumage, the ptarmigan of the Alps is perfectly adapted to winter in the mountains. Not only do the feathers of its legs isolate it from the cold, but they also act as snowshoes in the soft snow. Sedentary. Climb a little higher in summer, go down on the nesting sites in autumn. The ptarmigan have the characteristic to change plumage three times a year and not two, like most other birds. In any season, their plumage allows them to be well confused with the environment, especially females. In winter, both sexes are almost entirely white. In winter, the males (and some females) of Ptarmigan show a black line from bill to eye, giving the impression that these birds wear sunglasses to protect themselves from snow blindness. The moult (plumage change) progresses from head to tail in ptarmigan. As soon as the snow melts, the females acquire their striped breeding plumage where brown, gold and black predominate. In males, moulting begins later. Ptarmigan males retain winter plumage throughout the nesting season and part of the summer. During the parades, they offer a particularly striking sight with their immaculate white and black plumage and their red crests. After the snow melts, their plumage becomes duller because of the dust baths. By the end of the summer, males acquire a variegated livery similar to that of females, and at the moment when the females finish raising their offspring, they assume a more grayish autumn plumage. Hardly both sexes have put on their autumn plumage that they are already beginning to replace it with the characteristic winter white livery.

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FOOD

Plant food: leaves and buds of alpine plants, shoots, flowers, berries and insects.

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BREEDING

During the period of love, the male performs dances and robberies to seduce his bride. Males can mate with two, sometimes three females sharing their territory when populations reach unusually high densities (behavior called polygamy). Males can sometimes delight their neighbors' partners. Females mating with polygamous males engage in intense competition to attract male attention. A hierarchy is established, and the favorite of the male occupies the dominant position. It nests on the ground and the young fly on the tenth day and are independent from the tenth week. They are raised first by the female; then the male joins the family, which will remain grouped until winter.

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THREAT

Some signs of regression have appeared over the last twenty years, at the margins of the Alpine and Pyrenean ranges, without the causes being clearly defined. Even if the remoteness of its habitat limits disturbances related to human activities, the development of ski areas, the overgrazing of breeding areas by sheep flocks and excessive hunting pressure may have a local impact on this species. Also, hunters, pastoralists and forest managers must take care to preserve its tranquility and its habitats.

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