Nature · Birds

Ptarmigan

Resident · 34–36 cm

Lagopus muta — Phasianidae (pheasants and grouse)

Britain's only bird that turns white in winter, a grouse of the bare boulder-fields and plateaux of the Scottish Highlands, generally above about 700 metres. It moults three times a year to keep pace with the seasons, and its feathered feet act as snowshoes. It moved straight from the Green to the Red list in Birds of Conservation Concern 5, its montane habitat squeezed upwards by a warming climate.

How to spot them

▸The only British bird to go white in winter, all but its black tail and (in the male) a red eye-comb
▸White wings and white belly in every season — a red grouse never shows white in the wing
▸Summer male has a black line from bill through the eye; the female lacks it
▸Feathered feet, which give the genus its name, Lagopus, 'hare-foot'
▸Bare stony plateaux above the heather line; a belching, croaking rattle when flushed

How to know it

The only British bird that moults to white for the winter, keeping only a black tail

Ptarmigan — it moults three times a year.

Feathered feet acting as snowshoes give it a genus name meaning 'hare-foot'

Ptarmigan — Lagopus muta.

A grouse of bare boulder-fields above the heather line, almost always over 700 metres in the Cairngorms

Ptarmigan — the highest-living British bird.

White wings and a white belly in all seasons, unlike the all-dark wings of its heather-moor relative below

Ptarmigan, against red grouse — the wing is the reliable tell.

Went straight from the Green list to the Red list in 2021, its mountain habitat shrinking as the climate warms

Ptarmigan — Birds of Conservation Concern 5.

Its English name gained a silent Greek 'p' in the 17th century by false analogy with words such as pterodactyl

Ptarmigan — from Gaelic tarmachan.

Quick-fire facts

•Scientific name Lagopus muta: Lagopus is 'hare-foot', for the feathered toes, and muta means 'mute' or 'changing'
•The English name comes from Gaelic tarmachan; the silent initial 'p' was added in the 17th century by false analogy with Greek words like pteron, a wing
•It moults three times a year — white in winter, mottled grey-brown in summer, an intermediate autumn plumage
•Roughly 2,000 breeding pairs in the UK, but there has never been a full national survey, and the figure is poorly known (BTO BirdFacts, 2007 estimate)
•Red-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021) — one of the species that jumped straight from Green to Red, on a long-term decline of more than 80% since the 1960s
•It is not on Schedule 1 and remains legally shootable, with a season from 12 August to 10 December
•The UK range contracted by about 11% between the 1968–72 and 2008–11 atlases, mainly at lower altitudes on the western hills
•Threats include a warming climate squeezing montane habitat upwards, ski-development disturbance, and crows and gulls subsidised by hill infrastructure
•Confined in Britain to the Scottish Highlands: the Cairngorms, the Monadhliath and the north-west Highlands

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources

British Trust for Ornithology — BirdFacts: Ptarmigan
British Trust for Ornithology — Birds of Conservation Concern