Scientific name: Lagopus muta (Montin, 1781)
Bird group: Game birds
Field characters. 34-36 cm. A grouse-like bird of high mountains with wings and underbody white in all seasons. Male in breeding plumage with head, neck, chest, flanks, and upperparts dark grey-brown and black, vermiculated and barred with white; in autumn paler, more uniform grey. In winter adult male is entirely white except for black tail-feathers and lores. Red wattle over eye much larger in male than in female. Female like male but browner in summer plumage and appearing darker in autumn; no black lores in white winter plumage. Juvenile like autumn female but tail as upperparts, not black, and wings not white but pale brown.
Voice. Usual note is a hoarse, frog-like croak; it utters also a prolonged crackling snore; male in display-flight produces a loud, belching "aa-ka-ka".
Distribution. Disjunct distribution reflects restriction to subarctic, boreal, and arctic-alpine habitats.
Habitat. Prefers open rocky or stony terrain such as desolate tundra and mountain tops; avoids woodland, scrub, tall heaths, and pure grasslands.
Food. Feeds almost exclusively on plant material, taken from the ground, or from low-hanging branches; it may feed also in trees. Feeds on crowberry, heather, bilberry (vegetative parts as well as berries). In winter it feeds mainly on dwarf willow, and on catkins and buds of downy birch and dwarf birch.