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Sooty Grouse are Hooting
A grouse with a very low-pitched mating call.
© Eric Ellingson
In spring, a male Sooty Grouse calls from a concealed perch high in a tall conifer. Known as “hooting,” it’s a very low-pitched, five or six-note thunking sound. When a female cackles in response, the male flies down and displays to her by strutting and fanning his tail. Females are camouflaged in shades of gray and brown. One of the best times to see a Sooty Grouse is mid-summer, when the female escorts her chicks to the edge of a trail or roadside to search for food.
BirdNote®
Sooty Grouse are Hooting
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Sooty Grouse hooting, XC 483903]
In spring, a male Sooty Grouse calls from a concealed perch high in a tall conifer. Known as “hooting,” it’s a very low-pitched, five or six-note thunking sound.
[Sooty Grouse male hooting, ML 80333, 0:35-0:38]
While humans might easily miss these hoots, female Sooty Grouse are listening carefully for them.
[Sooty Grouse male hooting, ML 80333, 0:35-0:38]
When a female on the ground cackles in response…
[Sooty Grouse female clucking, ML 539779, 0:42-0:47]
...the male flies down and displays to her: fanning his tail, fluffing his feathers, strutting, and exposing the colorful yellow skin under his neck feathers.
Sooty Grouse inhabit open coniferous forests in the mountains of the west, from northern British Columbia to central California. They also reside year-round in moist evergreen habitats along the Northwest Coast, right down to sea level.
[Sooty Grouse female clucking, ML 539779]
Females are superbly camouflaged in shades of gray and brown. One of the best times to see a Sooty Grouse is mid-summer, when the female escorts her chicks to the open edge of a trail or roadside to hunt grasshoppers and nibble tender plants and wildflowers.
[Sooty Grouse female clucking, ML 539779]
It’s one of the few times these secretive birds show themselves in the open.
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
###
Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Sooty Grouse Xeno Canto 483903 recorded by B. Lagerquist, Sooty Grouse ML 80333 recorded by R. Little, and Sooty Grouse ML 539779 recorded by W. Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote April 2022 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# SOGR-01-2022-04-25 SOGR-25
References:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sooty_Grouse/sounds#
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/soogro1/cur/sounds
Bob Sundstrom
Writer