The rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) is a medium-sized game bird in the grouse tribe. It is known simply as the ptarmigan in Europe. It is the official bird for the Canadian territory of Nunavut, where it is known as the aqiggiq (ᐊᕿᒡᒋᖅ), and the official game bird for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In Japan, it is known as the raichō (雷鳥), which means "thunder bird"; it is the official bird of Gifu, Nagano, and Toyama Prefectures and is a protected species nationwide.
Etymology The ptarmigan's genus name, Lagopus, is derived from Ancient Greek lagos (λαγώς lagṓs), meaning "hare", + pous (πούς poús), "foot", in reference to the bird's feathered legs. The species name, muta, comes from Neo-Latin and means "mute", referring to the simple croaking song of the male. It was for a long time misspelt mutus, in the erroneous belief that the ending of Lagopus denotes masculine gender. However, as the Ancient Greek term λαγώπους lagṓpous is of feminine gender, and the species name has to agree with that, the feminine muta is correct. The word ptarmigan comes from the Gaelic tarmachan, meaning croaker. The p- was added due to a mistaken belief in a Greek origin, as if the word were related to Greek words like πτερόν (pterón), 'wing'.
Description The rock ptarmigan is 34–36 cm (13–14 in) long with an 8 cm (3.1 in) tail and with a wingspan of 54–60 cm (21–24 in) and a weight of 440–640 g (15.5–22.6 oz). It is about ten percent smaller than the willow ptarmigan. The rock ptarmigan is camouflaged to match the seasons; its feathers moult from white in winter to grey and brown in spring or summer. The breeding male has greyish upper parts with white wings and underparts. In winter, its plumage becomes completely white except for the black outer tail feathers and eye line. It can be distinguished from the winter willow ptarmigan by habitat; the rock ptarmigan prefers higher elevations and more barren habitats. It also differs in its slender bill; males additionally have black lores, absent in the willow ptarmigan, though they are also absent in female rock ptarmigan.
Taxonomy The rock ptarmigan has 23 accepted subspecies:
L. m. atkhensis (Turner, 1882) - Tanaga Island, Adak Island and Atka Island. (west-central of the Aleutian Islands, US) L. m. dixoni (Grinnell, 1909) - Glacier Bay Island and southeastern Alaska L. m. evermanni (Elliot D.G., 1896) - Attu Island of the west Aleutian Islands, US) L. m. gerasimovi (Red'kin, 2005) - Karaginskiy Island in Russia L. m. helvetica (Thienemann, 1829) - Alps L. m. hyperborea (Sundevall, 1845) - Svalbard (Norway) and Franz Josef Land (Russia) L. m. islandorum (Faber, 1822) - Iceland L. m. japonica (Clark A.H., 1907) - Honshu (Japan) L. m. kurilensis (Kuroda, 1924) - Kuril Island (Russia) L. m. macruros (Schiøler, 1925) - northeastern Greenland L. m. millaisi (Hartert, 1923) - Scotland L. m. muta (Montin, 1781) - northern Fennoscandia to Kola Peninsula (Russia) L. m. nadezdae (Serebrovski, 1926) - southern Siberia and northern Mongolia L. m. nelsoni (Stejneger, 1884) - Unimak and Unalaska Island (eastern Aleutian Islands, US) and southern Alaska L. m. pleskei (Serebrovski, 1926) - northern Siberia L. m. pyrenaica (Hartert, 1921) - central and eastern Pyrenees (France and Spain) L. m. reinhardi (Brehm C.L., 1824) - southern Greenland L. m. ridgwayi (Stejneger 1884) - Commander Island (Russia) L. m. rupestris (Gmelin J.F., 1789) - northern North America L. m. saturata (Salomonsen, 1950) - northwestern Greenland L. m. townsendi (Elliot D.G., 1896) - Kiska Island, Amchitka, Little Sitkin and Rat Island (western Aleutian Islands, US) L. m. welchi (Brewster, 1885) - Newfoundland (Canada) L. m. yunaskensis (Gabrielson & Lincoln, 1951) - Yunaska Island (central Aleutian Islands, US)
Sounds and displays Male rock ptarmigans emit a repertoire of guttural snores and rattles, most often directed to other males during breeding season. On open leks, single or multiple males also carry out displays on the ground and in the air to assert their territory, including chasing other males while flying. Aerial courtship rituals involve fast forward flight with rapidly-beating wings followed by an upward glide, tail fanned out. The male, at the peak of the display, belts out a rasping "ah-AAH-ah-AAAAH-a-a-a-a-a-a!", with the sung latter part coinciding with a gliding descent afterwards. The sound is often described as that of a stick being pulled rapidly across the slats of a picket fence. On the ground, male ptarmigans defend their space by calling and giving chase to other males. Physical conflicts between territorial males rarely occur, while confrontations between the former toward subordinate males are intensified. Other signals via fanning their tails, extended necks, lowered wings and circling a receptive female are also utilized.
Distribution and habitat The rock ptarmigan is a sedentary species which breeds across Arctic and Subarctic Eurasia and North America (including Greenland) on rocky mountainsides and tundra. It is widespread in the Arctic Cordillera and across the Eurasian Arctic from Norway, Sweden east to the Siberian Far East. It is also found in isolated populations in the mountains of Scotland, the Pyrenees, the Alps, Bulgaria, the Urals, the Pamir Mountains, the Altay Mountains, and Japan, where it occurs only in the Japanese Alps and on Mount Haku. Because of the remote habitat in which it lives, it has only a few predators, notably gyrfalcon, golden eagle, and arctic fox, and it can be surprisingly approachable. The small population living on Franz Josef Land in the Russian High Arctic overwinters during the polar night and survives by feeding on rich vegetation on and underneath high cliffs where seabird colonies are located in summer. In Great Britain, it occurred in England in the Lake District fells until the early 1800s, and slightly later in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, but is now absent from these regions, occurring now only in the Scottish Highlands. During the last ice age, the species was far more widespread in continental Europe.
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