Summary

  • Natural history: Spruce Grouse survive in Vermont only in a small pocket of the Nulhegan Basin in Essex County, the southeastern edge of a range that otherwise stretches across the boreal forest to Alaska. Unlike most birds, they feed heavily on pine and spruce needles, an unusual diet tied to young, low-branched spruce-fir stands, the same forest type that homesteaders and logging companies cut over across the region generations ago. Because the remaining Vermont population has continued to slide, wildlife biologists translocated more than 130 birds from Maine and Quebec between 2008 and 2010 in an attempt to re-establish a subpopulation nearby in the town of Victory.
  • Status in VT: Decreased by 50% (2 to 1 block). Decrease in Northeastern Highlands.
  • Data from other research: No additional data for VT.
  • Conservation status: State rank S1; E; SGCN-H
  • Other atlases: NY: -50%; ON: no sig. change
  • VT’s role in North American range: VT is at the southeastern edge of the range.
  • Causes of change since first Atlas: Habitat loss; extirpation of populations in small patches of habitat.
  • Management/Monitoring recommendations:Restore subpopulations to formerly occupied habitats using stock from core populations; follow habitat management guidelines for suitable Spruce Grouse habitat.

First Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (1976-1981)

Species Account

Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (2003 – 2007)

Species Account

Spruce Grouse Map 1Spruce Grouse Table 1Spruce Grouse Table 2

Change in Distribution

mapkeySpruce Grouse Map 2Spruce Grouse Table 3

Links

Vermont eBird

Encyclopedia of Life

All About Birds