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Silly Willow Ptarmigan
Hard not to smile when you hear this bird!
© Tim Lenz
Some bird songs leave us in admiration of their beauty, some with a sense of wonder at their complexity—and others are downright comical. As a maker of silly sounds, the male Willow Ptarmigan beats the Three Stooges hands down. But these sounds are no laughing matter. Where it nests in the shrubby willow tundra of Alaska and Canada, the Willow Ptarmigan crows to attract females and show other males he’s in charge of his territory.
This episode is brought to you by the Tuttleman Foundation with thanks for their generous support.
BirdNote®
The Silly Willow Ptarmigan
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
Some bird songs leave us in admiration of their beauty, some with a sense of wonder at their complexity — and others are downright comical.
[Call of the male Willow Ptarmigan]
This male Willow Ptarmigan sounds like he might be laughing, or at least doing his best to make others laugh. As a maker of silly sounds, he beats the Three Stooges hands down.
[More Willow Ptarmigan]
For the male ptarmigan though, these sounds are no laughing matter. Where it nests in the low, dense, shrubby willow tundra of Alaska and Canada, the Willow Ptarmigan crows to attract females and show other males he’s in charge of his stretch of tundra. This stocky, northern relative of grouse and chickens is a bright rusty brown above with a white belly and wings.
The hen ptarmigan is so well camouflaged in brown tones, you might be looking right at her and never know it. But the male is another story: picture those white wings propelling that chunky rusty body in a long arc over the tundra, as he chuckles his way across the tops of the willows.
[Male Willow Ptarmigan]
For BirdNote, I'm Michael Stein.
This episode is brought to you by the Tuttleman Foundation with thanks for their generous support.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Call of the Willow Ptarmigan provided by the Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Willow Ptarmigan [105769 and 105848] recorded by G.A. Keller. BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org May 2013/2016/2021 & October 2025
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# WIPT-01b-2021-05-10 WIPT-01b
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
