Identification
by tail feathers
legs or feet unfeathered
legs scaly
Centre tail feathers long, barred & pointed
- smaller grayish bird
- short tail
- brown feathers on breast
Gray Partridge
- Gray bird w black v-shaped bib
- white belly
- black barred sides
Chukar
legs feathered
tail feathers pointed
middle two tail feathers
longer and darker than rest of tail
Sharp-tailed Grouse
tail feathers blunt,
square-tipped
- tail shows:
- wide dark band
- edged w gray
- prominent dark neck ruffs
Ruffed Grouse
not as above
- tail feathers dark,
- tipped w rusty brown
- red wattle over eye
spruce grouse
- tail feathers dark
- entirely dark or gray terminal band
- yellow wattles over eye
blue grouse
completely feathered
legs & feet
Ptarmigan
- Willow
- Rock
- White-tailed
General traits
- gallinacious
(chicken-like)
Ring-necked pheasant
- young retain pointed outer wing feathers
- adults have roudn-tipped outer wing feathers
- short, rounded wings adapted for short flights
- strong legs for running
- adept at hiding in cover
- breeding requires the right amount of moisture & warmth
Migratory
Mourning dove
Band-tailed pigeon
Resident
Native
Ptarmigan
Species
Grouse
Introduced
Ring-necked pheasant
Gray Partridge (Hun)
Chukar
Quail
Wild turkey
species
Traits
- dull brown or gray
- sexes similar
- ground nester, shallow hole in soil lined with grass
- feathered legs & feet
Spruce
- high elevation conifer forests
- gray upper body with black bars
- black lower body with white bars
- red eye comb in males
blue
- low elevation (nesting)
- high elevation (late season)
- conifer forests
- mottled gray-blue body
- mottled brown wings
- yellow comb in males
ruffed
- lower elevation mixed/open forests
- mottled brown body
- tail
- many narrow, parallel black bands
- single wide black band
- head crest
- male has black neck ruff
sharp-tailed
- open parklands of Peace & Cariboo
- brownish & heavily barred
- V-shaped marks on chest & belly
- pointed tail often up
- male has yellow comb and purplish neck sacs
Traits
- very large
- both sexes iridescent dark brown
- naked head
- males:
- colourful, fleshy parts on head & neck
- tuft of hair-like feathers on chest
- van island, Gulf Islands, Okanagan, Kootenays
California
Mountain
- white-tailed
- Gallinaceous
- alpine tundra habitat
- colour:
- mixed white, brown, black body in summer;
- white in winter
- heavily feathered feet and legs
- sexes similar
- forward curving head plumes
- SE van island, gulf islands, Okanagan
- both sexes gray-brown
- heavy black bars on white flanks
- black bar on forehead, cheeks, eyes, chest
- dry grassland and desert
- interior and gulf islands
- will often run away rather than fly.
- Large males
- bright colours
- smaller, browner females
- longer & larger than sharp-tailed grouse
- agricultural lands in south BC
- may run from an approaching human
- both sexes gray brown
- rusty face and throat
- barred flanks
- short brown tail
- grasslands of southern interior
- like domestic pigeon
- blue-gray body
- purplish head and breast
- white bar on back of neck
- pale gray band on tail
- yellow legs
both sexes similar - southwest coast and expanding in south BC
- streamlined
- small head
- long, pointed tail
- slaty-blue above, red below
- white spots on tail
- black spots on cheeks
- legs and feet red
- South BC
- SE van island
- head plumes tilted back
brown and gray-blue
Back to Animals
Introduced, non-native
Rock
Willow
behaviour
- run from danger rather than fly
- do not flush when
frightened - live in high alpine habitat and tundra
areas
tolerates humans