If you go walking and you encounter a rather large grayish hen-like bird walking on the road, perhaps limping, as if her wing were broken, it will certainly be the Ruffed Grouse, who tries to guide you away from her nest.
The male wears the larger and shinier ruff under the neck and it can be fluffed out in courtship or when challenging some rival male. It is the male, too that does the famous drumming. The performances are more numerous in the Spring. The male picks out a stump or log for a regular drumming platform and then begins the performance, which is all done with its wings. Sometimes a bird will drum every five minutes or so for an hour at a time. The female lays from 7 to 15 eggs in a depression on the ground and the young follow the mother off the nest as soon as they are hatched.
