White-tailed ptarmigan Lagopus leucurus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 10 inches
• Medium-sized, stocky, round-winged, chicken-like bird
• Squarish white tail in nonjuvenal plumage
• Small black bill
• Legs and toes feathered
• Brown or white uppertail coverts cover center of tail

Male alternate:

• Red comb over eye
• White wings, tail and leg feathering
• Body brown barred with black or white depending on molt stage

Female alternate:

• Brown plumage with black spotting and barring
• Small red comb over eye
• White wings and tail

Basic:

• Entirely white plumage
• Small red comb over eye

Similar species:

In all plumages the White-tailed Ptarmigan can be told from the other ptarmigan species by its white, not black, tail.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.