I'm going to try this again. I asked several days ago any didn't get a response. I'm sure one of you guys or gals from Minnesota or Wisconsin knows the answer. My question is, does the female Ruffed Grouse display her tail up and fanned out like the male bird? I don't think turkeys do but don't have a clue about grouse. Thanks for the help.
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are the only ones that fan (display).
From MN
to. I raise turkeys and the hens will strut also.
......Will display, but not in the same way as the males. Mostly it's a tail fanned out while walking and the tail is never up. They don't raise the ruff around the neck either. I raised them for about 5 years and I never saw more than that from a female.
I must have had some really confused birds then, cause my dominant hen displays just like a male. She holds her tail up and even holds her wings like a male, and the feathers do stand up on her neck,and yes I'm sure It's a hen I've been raising turkeys since 1985 and have seen this once before in a hen. Send me your address and I will send you a pic this spring of her doing it.
.....fairly common in some birds. I just never saw more than that in my ruffs. I did have Golden Pheasant hens "try" to display like the cock birds, it was hard to figure out until you realized what they were doing. I'd guess it's a dominance thing rather than just a breeding display.
Ruffs were probably the most fun of any bird that I ever had. They got SO TAME!
My hen turkeys strut around all the time except during breeding season. I have even heard them attempt to gobble. (It's hilarious!)
It definitely seems to be a form of dominance display, and I see it the most during the fall when the new crop of hens are essentially full grown and are finding their place in the peck order.
I've never raised ruffed grouse so I can't say for certain, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the hens adopted at least a partial form of the display ritual when establishing dominance. The thing is they aren't normally a flocking bird, so once the family groups break up there would be very little reason for them to need to do so.
If they manage to live long enough for their female hormones to diminish with age (or if they have ovary damage) then I think they would look and behave almost exactly like the males.
seen them strut as young as 3 mounths old thats funny,they don't even have there grown up feathers yet and are the size of small chickens.
The way I understand it, female grouse do not display their tails up, but some turkey hens do. I'll tell the guy if he wants a tail up to get a turkey. Just kidding. Thanks for the help everyone.