Aggressive Ruffed Grouse
If you read this blog regularly you may be starting to think I’m obsessed with ruffed grouse. I promise that I have plans to write about many other species but this has, in fact, been the year of the grouse for me. Last spring I finally got some nice quality videos of one drumming, preening, and strutting and figured I was done with this bird for awhile. But about two weeks ago, Bob and I had an interesting experience with an unusually aggressive ruffed grouse. At first we were puzzled by its behavior, but eventually concluded that misplaced territorial aggression was the most likely explanation. I’ll relate the story, and then you can decide for yourself what you think explains the bird’s behavior.
One October day in Massachusetts, we bushwhacked our way to an old abandoned beaver dam through regenerating forest: Dense saplings with scattered mature trees and some large logs. Choice grouse real estate, we noted aloud. When we reached the dam and settled down to rest, a grouse emerged from the woods and walked out onto the dam! At first we stayed stock still to avoid frightening it, but soon we realized the bird was well aware of our presence and unafraid. Gradually the bird, foraging and feeding on grass seeds, partridge berries, and mushrooms, worked its way toward us till it was only about a foot away. It would have been possible to pick it up but we thought it better not to try. We did not want to teach it that it’s okay to be handled by a human.
We wondered if he had known people. Had he been cared for in some way? Perhaps a rehabbed bird. Or maybe a feeder visitor that had become tame. I offered my cupped hand (empty) to see if it looked to it for food, but it did not. On the contrary, it seemed to take it as a challenge, jumping aggressively like a rooster, and fanning its tail. In the video below, notice the jump and then the tail fanning. In slow motion, you can see that there is a continuous thick, dark band near the distal end of the tail. This indicates that the bird is likely a male. Females usually have a discontinuity in that thick, dark band.
If you’ve raised chickens you might recognize that grouse’s jumping as aggressive behavior. Some roosters are highly aggressive toward people and other animals. They are protecting their territories and their hens. One of my roosters charged and jumped at anyone who entered our yard. Another one occasionally jumped at people, but usually only if they entered the chicken coop. Though much smaller than people, roosters can do real damage with the long, sharp spurs on their legs. Grouse are even smaller and have no spurs, but the boldness and jumping towards humans that this one displayed, appeared similar to the behavior of an aggressive rooster.
We stayed on the dam with the grouse for almost an hour. As we prepared to leave, we joked that he might follow us. And, you guessed it, he did! Sometimes he lagged behind 10-15 feet, and other times he was practically under foot – just a foot behind me. I was afraid I might accidentally step on him. I tried to get behind him to get a video of him following Bob, but the bird wouldn’t have it. He had to stay behind both of us. He followed us through the woods for about 500 feet to a dirt road. Then, as we walked along the road, the bird ran on the stone wall lining the road for another 250 feet! Perhaps he felt taller and more powerful up on the wall. Then, he abruptly stopped following us and returned to “his” woods. I believe he was escorting us out of his territory and when he reached its boundary, his job was done and he resumed his usual activity.
It might seem unlikely that a grouse would be this territorial in October, but at least some males remain territorial almost year round. In my video montage at a large log in Targeting Unique Habitat Features with Trail Camera, a ruffed grouse is seen drumming in September!
While bold behavior around humans is unusual, it is not unheard of. Since sharing this experience on social media, I have heard of similar experiences from several other people, some involving other grouse species, such as the ptarmigan and the spruce grouse. In some cases the bird actually pursued and pecked at a person. If you search online, you’ll find some similar descriptions.
Two different explanations for aggressive grouse behavior are presented here. In my opinion territoriality is the most likely explanation unless the bird has been tamed and hand fed by someone in the past. I’m not sure I buy the idea, presented in the article at that link, that birds naive to humans are foolishly tame. Some examples given to advance that theory may have been misinterpreted. In particular, the broody hen which stays in place until you try to pick her up, or which allows you to actually pick her up, isn’t all that unusual among birds. Female bluebirds can often be picked up off their nests (I used to pick them up or reach under them to count eggs when monitoring bluebird nestboxes). Female robins have stayed on the nest till I was close enough to pick them up (but I never actually tried to). Broody chickens, even ornery individuals who do not normally allow people to pick them up, can also be lifted off the nest. So I think that behavior relates to broodiness, not naivete.
But this unusual boldness is a fascinating phenomenon and I’m interested in other ideas — feel free to share your own interpretations and experiences with grouse in a comment.
I think I have one more grouse post for 2019, then on to other species. Thanks for bearing with me!
Interesting! I Had a close encounter with a grouse at nesting tine this year and my take on that was that he hen wanted me to follow her. I hike with two hiking sticks as i’m 89 and no way was I about to leave the gravel road and try to keep my footing in some rough going.
That is interesting! I wonder if you were near the nest and the hen was trying to lead you away from it. They are known to lure people and other potential predators away from their nests and chicks.
Grouse don’t nest in October.
She didn’t say it was October. She said “at nesting time”, which I assumed meant spring.
Description on the YouTube video says October
I have a ruffed grouse here on my deck, at my feet. He’s been here for a few days, and he seems aggravated that I’m on my deck. My deck. I haven’t seen his harem in a couple days. Just here in the last half hour, he has walked right up to my leg (I’m sitting in a chair) and beat my shin with both wings. He pecked my shoe a few times, for good measure. Fascinating fearlessness.
The fearlessness does seem strange, yet it must be a beneficial trait overall. Fascinating.
Hi Janet,
My mother had an interesting encounter with a ruffed grouse back in the late 1980s. She was weeding her flower gardens in her yard (a suburban setting in Enfield, CT with the backyard bordering a sizeable forested woodlot). Suddenly a ruffed grouse appeared at her side and stayed with her for hours while she continued weeding. Nothing aggressive but very close proximity–within a foot or so. She sent me pictures while I was at college in Wisconsin. She didn’t know what the bird was, and she didn’t force any interaction; but she felt it had “befriended” her for the duration of the afternoon — which she peacefully and thoroughly enjoyed. We talk about that to this day!
Hi Lori, I’ve now read and heard about a number of such interactions, where people’s interpretation is that the bird befriended them. That could be, but I wonder if that was a male behaving territorially. They’re so much smaller and can’t hurt us, so it’s tempting to see it as friendliness, but it could be that the bird was keeping an eye on your mother. Maybe he considered her garden part of his territory. (I don’t mean to ruin a pleasant memory, but just giving food for thought)
Hi Janet,
Didn’t ruin a pleasant memory at all — I totally agree with you; I just elected not to share those types of eco-perceptions with my mother, then and now. She likes to think it was one of the many ways and many times my Dad came back to visit her since his death in 1972. Connection is powerful on so many levels…
Ah. I understand!
How apropos – had just finished reading the last chapter “Redruff: The Story of the Don Valley Partridge” in Ernest Seton-Thompson’s Wild Animals I Have Known when I saw your post. I thought perhaps the Grouse might have thought you were being a bit aggressive when you moved your fingers and when your index finger was closest to him was when he jumped but it was away from, rather than toward you, so maybe it was more of a startled than an aggressive response. Who knows what an individual grouse thinks, anyway? Thanks for your posts – always gives me something to think about!
That’s a great thought! It could have been more startled than aggressive. I wish we had gotten more of this on video. I’m pretty sure he jumped several times but we only got a little of this interaction on video. Even if he was startled, though, he could have run or flown away. But instead, his reaction to the extension of my hand was awfully bold. He stood his ground. But as you say, we’ll never know what was going through his mind.
I currently have a roughed grouse that’s regularly attacking my windows now… He seems to be getting increasingly bold, following me and flying after vehicles as they leave. He’s chased my young kids as well so I’m going to have to figure out a way to deal with him as they are getting scared to go out alone. I’ve sprayed him with a hose, and kicked back in the the woods he comes right back…
Wow, that’s quite aggressive! I would first remove any bird feeders if you have them, to eliminate the allure of an easy food source. And, as for any bird that is attacking windows, I’d cover those windows until he moves on. Lots of bird species attack windows – It is thought that they are responding to their own reflection, thinking it’s an intruding bird. That is territorial behavior. Spraying him with the hose, as you are doing, is also good. If after all of that he continues to attack your kids, I’d call your local Fish and Wildlife Dept. Hope that helps.
We don’t have any bird feeders, and he was here and acting similar before winter so I’m not thinking he’s going to move on anytime soon haha. I did not see him at all over the winter months (we live in MN). I do have several pictures and video if that interests you at all tell me where I can send them.
Ah. MN. I’ve spent time tracking in MN and noticed they have a lot of excellent grouse habitat…At least in northern MN, not sure about the rest of the state. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other ideas on how to make him stop. Your yard must be near a humdinger of a drumming log. I’d be interested in seeing your videos – see the contact section of this website and email me, if you like.
Sent them to the email I found, you’ll have to let me know if they come through okay. I caught him today and relocated him to a different area on our 40 acres so we will see if he comes back.
Running today on a quiet road bordered by lots of woods and hiking trails. I ran past a game bird (that I later looked up and identified as a ruffed grouse). I passed within a foot of it and I was a little startled that it didn’t move, but just looked at me.
A few seconds later I felt something hitting my back and heard flapping wing. there was a light pressure on my back and the flapping sound continued. I kept going, and the sound and pressure stopped.Slowly it occurred to me it must have been the bird I had passed. This evening I’ve been searching on the web and found related stories. By the way this is in central Massachusetts in mid October.
Wow! Thanks for commenting about this. Apparently this is much more common grouse behavior than I realized!
I, too, have a Ruffed Grouse story that’s currently ongoing. A couple of weeks ago, this bird showed up. I thought it was very friendly. I’ve since decided it’s territorial and claiming our rooftop as it’s drumming log. Well…we are painting our house. I was attacked while on a ladder. I felt it coming as that bird came down the roof and got within a foot of my face. I thought…”Just hold on to the ladder.” After two lunges at me (I held the ladder, my face down, and screamed…hahaha!), it stopped. Two days later, it was following me around the yard and attacked me from behind, pecking my ‘behind’! This bird is following me and my husband around the yard. At first, I thought it was cute. Now I am trying to figure out a way to send it away without harming it. I may try the owl decoy. Wish me luck!
Wow, I am so glad I wrote this post, because now I see how common this is! Amazing how such a small bird can challenge big animals like us! I do wish you luck! Thanks for sharing.
Later in the month of March (spring) I was hiking with my two dogs, when this bird flew right past my head, extremely close, and landing nearby down by a creek. We went to check it out, because I thought it was a injured falcon. Turned out it was a grouse. We watched it forage for sometime, coming close to us, and followed us for some distance, getting really close, and making faint sounds, it didn’t seem aggressive to us, but I had both my medium sized dogs. So close I swear I could pick it up. I was trying to talk back to it, and it seemed very curious about us. Ran the dogs into the house to grab the camera, and it disappeared, like it didn’t even exsist. Unsure if it was territorial due to me, or the dogs or both. I’ve been hiking with my dogs there for over 13 yrs, first time this ever happened. Excellent experience.
Wow, it’s incredible that it behaved like that in the presence of your dogs! If one behaves like that in the face of wild canids, it’d be dinner in an instant.
I was camping with my six year old and husband this weekend in Southern NH and a grouse came out of the woods and walked right up to us. It started to frighten my daughter when it was jumping aggressively within inches of her so I picked her up and it stayed at my ankles for awhile. We tried to lead it further into the woods and it stayed right at our heels, at times pecking at our feet and appearing stressed the further into the woods we went. It hopped all over our table and chairs and stayed with us a few hours before finally retreating into the woods. We saw it again in the morning as we were driving away and it chased our car! I took video and photos if you are interested.
Wow, that stands out even among territorial grouse stories! Sure, I’d love to see your photos and video. I will reply also by email so you can email them back to me. Thanks!
I have a ruffed grouse that initial was curious following us around and getting close to us when we were sitting outside with our friends That was adorable. But today the grouse kept attacking me, I used a rake to stop it from striking my legs. Every time I walked out of the cabin, it stalked and kept trying to strike me with her beak. It got so close to the door I was afraid it would enter the cabin( that would have been a shit show-pardon my French). I don’t want to harm the grouse, but can ill-afford a peck from a wild animal. I take immunosuppressive drugs to keep my cancer in remission. An infection is what usually kills us multiple myeloma( plasma cell cancer-white blood cell) people. If it continues we will be eating grouse for dinner. My concern is she has eggs that haven’t hatched yet. I don’t want to harm this grouse or it’s young. HELP, I don’t know what to do?
It is highly likely that what you are dealing with is a territorial male, not a nesting female, so you need not worry about nestlings. Males are not involved in the child care. I don’t know how to stop the behavior, so any suggestions I could make would focus on your protecting yourself with clothing. His aggression may dwindle with time, as the mating season draws to a close, but that is not a given, because some males are highly territorial year round, as stated in my article.
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We have an uninvited guest ruffled grouse in our yard. When it sees us drive in or walk out of the house, it comes running. We have to trap it by overturning a laundry basket on it in order to mow our lawn! It follows us around and occasionally charges and pecks. Our chicken loving grand kids are a bit afraid of him. Undecided if we’re going to have to rehome him if he gets more aggressive.
*Ruffed grouse – I’ll blame auto correct for that!
Hi Laurel, I’m so sorry I missed this comment when you submitted it weeks ago. Trapping it under a laundry basket for short periods so you can do what you need to do seems like a great idea. I hope his territoriality/aggression has declined somewhat now that fall is progressing.
So interesting to read these posts. I had to google what kind of crazy forest bird we encountered on the back of our 5 acres while walking thru the woods. Pretty sure I found him as described Ruffed Grouse and boy is he territorial. Soon as he heard us crunching the leaf covered ground there he was and right over so close we could have touched him. He’s quite fast at avoiding contact but very aggressive in trying to move us off. We were trying to find and mark survey pins and when hubby was bent low this bird jumped him, landed on his back and started pecking the back of his head. Not kidding, this little feather weight had no fear and could have been on the dinner menu in seconds. No fear and no brains and did not back down no matter what we did. We have a cat that loves to walk with us and he was lazing in the shade nearby so I thought well let’s see what little featherweight thinks of a cat so walking over to him the bird follows then quite suddenly does a 360 and off he goes either from seeing the cat or sensing him? He was pretty well hidden? Two hours later I went back to take some measurements of survey markers we’d found and I hear a familiar sound…. Little featherweight heard me and he’s back right up to me trying to jump on me. Unbelievable little bird. I tried shooing him away no way he’s giving in, he was all over me. He followed me all the way back to the house about 100 feet then he stopped. Some info I read said this is very unusual behaviour but I’m thinking it’s pretty common? How does this little bird survive when he’s willing to be so close to a human? Weird behaviour for sure.
I too am beginning to think this is common behavior, given all the comments I’ve gotten on this post! And I agree that this boldness around large animals such as humans would be a death knell. The way I’m thinking of it is that the most aggressive males will be best at fending off the other males and therefore get to mate with the females. The tradeoff is that their foolhardy boldness will make them easy pickin’s for predators. So the most aggressive males will be short-lived, but since they will also be the more likely to mate and pass on their genes, their aggressiveness is, overall, an evolutionary win.
Hello .. we have a grouse , Gary , at our farm in Sullivan County PA . He has been following us since August . He is attracted by the sound of the gator as well . We toss him some food and berries . I could sit on the ground and he would come up to my feet . He gets in the deck and looks on and pecks at the doors. He recently is more aggressive. Pecks at our feet . It’s amazing and comical to watch .
That is hilarious, thanks for sharing. When I wrote this post I never expected I’d get so many fascinating accounts of people interacting with these birds. I hope Gary doesn’t get more aggressive, though, so you can continue to enjoy him.
Have a grouse at our cabin in northwestern WI. This is the third year he’s returned, spring and fall. He follows us all around, sits on the deer blind in the fall, top of the outhouse, wherever we go. For the first time he pecked my husband today but no fanning or stomping. Makes for neat photos and videos!
Wow, that is fascinating. To have lived at least 3 years he is obviously doing something right. On the one hand it’s foolishly bold behavior but on the other hand he certainly hasn’t suffered from it!
I just recently had a grouse rooster chase me down a trail in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in NE Minnesota just a few miles from the Canadian border. It sounds funny, but it was actually quite alarming. It puffed itself up, then came out of the brush onto the trail, followed me, then ran towards me flapping it’s wings. I ran away as I didn’t want to have to hurt the thing. Whew! Close call.
I continue to be amazed at the experiences with grouse people are sharing here! Never realized how common it is for these little birds to challenge humans!
I had quite the experience last year while hunting. It must hear me as I climb into my stand in a huge oak; it always came over to me in the morning. Well one morning it flew up into a branch next to me and was making a really weird noise; well I was filming it and all of a sudden it came at me. I climbed down from my stand and as I was walking out it flew at me and pecked at me…twice. needless to say the grouse won.
Now every time we go and check our trail cam on the 4-wheeler it makes an apoearance and is NOT happy we are there!
Oh my. I’m in awe of all these stories. I think this one takes the prize so far!
Same sort of thing just happened to me in upstate NY yesterday (10/14/23). Was walking a trail (wide enough for a pickup truck) in a state park & this grouse (same species as yours & also a male) jumped out & came right up to me & stayed about 1 foot away. Made thrumming sort of noises moving back & forth in front of me. I had never seen this & didn’t know what to think. But stayed b/c he didn’t seem aggressive. Finally called the park personal & they sent someone out & called their bird expert who confirmed that it was a grouse just being territorial. It followed me about 100 ft down the trail when I met up with the park personal who “held” it while my wife & left the area then they left & it went back to where ever it came from!
I have pics & video of it very close to me as well!
I love it!! I never expected all these stories when I posted this article! Thanks for sharing!
We live in Northern Idaho. Our home is a couple miles into the forest on a gravel road. Lately, every time we drive up or down the road, a ruffed grouse attacks the car. It flies along side the SUV and pecks at the windows.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.