The deep, thumping sound starts slowly and builds to a blurred crescendo as the bird rapidly rotates his wings back and forth. The male Ruffed Grouse’s unique drumming display takes place from atop a low log, stump, or rock. The drumming sequence lasts 8–10 seconds, during which the wings may beat up to 50 times. Audubon protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. No longer a mystery, the drumming of the grouse remains one of the most evocative sounds of the North American forest. Ruffed Grouse. These forests contain trees that have leaves which bud in the spring, flower in the summer and drop off in the fall. Ruffed grouse live in deciduous forests. The Bureau of Land Management's upcoming and newly offered leases threaten to unravel historic conservation agreement. Among the mysteries of the Maine woods is the intense “drumming” of a male ruffed grouse. Bald Eagle. Grouse are about the same size as chickens (about 17 inches long). Males are a steely gray-blue, but during courtship they reveal orange eye combs and yellow-orange air sacs in the neck. The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education, and on-the-ground conservation. More than 250 years ago, the famous Philadelphia naturalist John Bartram informed his English colleagues that the grouse produced their drumming “by clapping their wings against their sides.” Others hypothesized that the sound arose when the wings were beat against the puffed-up breast, or when they were clapped together. How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Ruffed Grouse Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future. They quiet chicks with a scolding call and emit a low, cooing hum to gather their brood. During this ritual display, the grouse beats its wings in a series of thumps that builds to a resonant crescendo, the bird's wings blurring with speed. The males are usually slightly larger than the females, although an occasional adult female will exceed a young male in size. Ruffed Grouse are mostly quiet, but they do make sounds. BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. National Audubon Society Listen to Ruffed grouse on bird-sounds.net - a comprehensive collection of North American bird songs and bird calls. It may be the weirdest noise in the woods: the thrumming whumps of the male Ruffed Grouse. They quiet chicks with a scolding call and emit a low, cooing hum to gather their brood. We protect birds and the places they need. They do make any loud calls but mother grouse will murmur to her chicks and grouse will also chirp when startled. How the birds produce their unusual thrumming was a long-time mystery, solved only with the advent of wildlife cinematography. Photo: Dick Dickinson/Audubon Photography Awards. Ruffed Grouse are somewhat larger than pigeons, living their entire lives in wooded areas. Legal Notices Privacy Policy Contact Us. Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. The Cornell Lab will send you updates about birds, birding, and opportunities to help bird conservation. It emits a typical thumping sound, which is mainly a courtship display done by … The Sooty Grouse is a large game bird of the wet mountain forests of the Pacific Coast. ... Ruffed Grouse. The Ruffed Grouse is a hardy bird and can adapt to many climates, including cold ones. Are the Trump Administration's Environmental Rollbacks Built to Last? All files are available in both Wav and MP3 formats. BirdNote episodes air daily on public radio stations nationwide. Displays are most frequent just before and after sunrise, although they can continue into early evening. Frame-by-frame analysis proved that the wings were striking nothing but air—hard and fast enough to produce popping sounds that ran together into the whirring drum. Sound Library - Ruffed Grouse. What types of sounds do ruffed grouse make? Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies(Order: Galliformes, Family:Phasianidae). Mastery of an extra voice box is the secret to their haunting harmonies. Familiar as these accelerating burps still are to hunters and hikers of the north woods, the origin of this bizarre sound was long a mystery.