15 December 2017
This photo looks odd until you see a bird in it.
White-tailed ptarmigans (Lagopus leucura) hide in plain sight by blending into the landscape. They’re speckled brown in summer and white as snow in winter. They virtually disappear when they close their eyes.
In late November Dan Arndt found these birds in the snow at Highwood Pass, Highway 40 in Alberta, Canada.
How many ptarmigans do you see?
Willow ptarmigans hide, too. Practice finding them in this 2010 article: Where’s Willow?
(photos by Dan Arndt)
Kate,
Will you write about the Corncrake found on Long Island? Interesting story!
Have a nice weekend.
I remember when I was a little kid and and saw the word “ptarmigan” in a bird book. I mispronounced it as “partridge-man” — as in, a male partridge. So for the longest time, I assumed that the female partridge was brown and patterned (like the one in the pear tree), and the male was snow-white!