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White-tailed ptarmigan        Images © Mark A. Chappell

Three species of ptarmigan are found in North America: the rock ptarmigan, the widesperead willow ptarmigan, and this species, the white-tailed ptarmigan.   All are grouselike birds that turn white in winter and entirely (females) or partially (males) mottled brown in summer.   All ptarmigan are often hard to see, but tend to be very tame -- often ridiculously so.   The birds in these photos, well above treeline in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, and near Hatcher Pass, Alaska -- were no exception.   I took several pictures with a wideangle lens, and one bird walked between the legs of my tripod with no sign of alarm.   The Alaska birds, photographed in September, are partially molted into the white winter plumage.

  • Canon 1D4 or 7D2; 800 mm IS lens, or 24-105 mm IS zoom, some with fill-in flash (2012, 2019)