I saw a flock of ptarmigan today. They were mostly white, which made me wonder why the ptarmigan feather I found last week was brown. Well, after a quick bit of research I know now that these superbly camouflaged birds change colour a few times a year to match their surroundings. Molt. Is that the word? Anyway, so the brown feather I found last week was from a molting ptarmigan. It must be shedding its brown feathers to grow white and black ones so it can blend in with snow and rocks instead of brown willows and rocks. Later in the season they prolly molt to all-white. Either way, these vids do a pretty good job of showing the bird's current I-want-to-look-like-rocks-and-snow phase. One even shows how they cluck like chickens.
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