From Opus

Photo by Gaukur
Photographed: Husavik, North-eastern Iceland

Lagopus muta

[edit] Identification

31-35cm. Its feathers moult from white in winter to brown in spring or summer. Breeding males have greyish upper parts with white wings and underparts. In winter, plumage becomes completely white except for the black tail.^[2]

[edit] Distribution

Arctic and subarctic Eurasia and North America including Greenland.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Polytypic. Consists of about 29 subspecies:

• L. m. hyperborea: Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Bear Island
• L. m. muta: Norway, northern Sweden, northern Finland and Kola Peninsula
• L. m. millaisi: Scotland
• L. m. pyrenaica: Pyrénées
• L. m. helvetica: Alps (Savoie to central Austria)
• L. m. komensis: Northern Ural Mountains
• L. m. pleskei: Northern Siberia (Taymyr Peninsula to Chukotsk Peninsula)
• L. m. macrorhyncha: Tarbagatay Mountains (Russia)
• L. m. ssp.: Undescribed race from Pamir Alaï Mountains (Tajikistan)
• L. m. nadezdae: Mountains of southern Siberia and Mongolia
• L. m. transbaicalica: South-eastern Siberia (Lake Baikal to Sea of Okhotsk)
• L. m. kraschennikovi: Kamchatka Peninsula
• L. m. ridgwayi: Komandorskiye Islands
• L. m. kurilensis: Kuril Islands
• L. m. japonica: Honshu Island (Japan)
• L. m. evermanni: Attu Island (Aleutian Islands)
• L. m. townsendi: Aleutian Islands (Kiska and Little Kiska)
• L. m. gabrielsoni: Aleutian Islands (Amchitka, Little Sitkin and Rats)
• L. m. sanfordi: Aleutian Islands (Tanaga and Kanaga)
• L. m. chamberlaini: Adak Island (Aleutian Islands)
• L. m. atkhensis: Atka Island (Aleutian Islands)
• L. m. yunaskensis: Yunaska Island (Aleutian Islands)
• L. m. nelsoni: Aleutian Islands (Unimak, Unalaska and Amaknak)
• L. m. dixoni: Coasts and mountains of Glacier Bay to north-western British Columbia
• L. m. kelloggae: Alaska and northern Yukon
• L. m. rupestris: Tundra of northern North America
• L. m. saturata: North-western Greenland
• L. m. capta: Eastern Greenland
• L. m. reinhardti: South-western Greenland
• L. m. welchi: Newfoundland
• L. m. islandorum: Iceland

[edit] Habitat

Rocky mountainsides and tundra.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Its diet includes birch and willow buds and catkins when available. They will also take various seeds, leaves, flowers and berries of other plant species. Insects are also taken by the developing young.^[2]

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.4.xls/view.
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links