It was a crisp late September morning in Minnesota, the perfect weather for Ruffed Grouse hunting. We were loading our gear into the truck, excited for a day in the grouse woods, when my phone buzzed. Normally, I’d ignore it, but it was my fiancée, Sabrina.
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“A grouse just flew through the window and landed on the bed,” Sabrina said, her voice a mix of disbelief and amusement.
“Wait, what?” I replied, confused.
She repeated slowly, “A grouse flew right through the second-story window and it’s on the bed.”
Slightly bewildered, I hung up and turned to my hunting buddies. “I need to head back to camp for a minute,” I explained.
Arriving back at our cabin, the scene was exactly as described. A young Ruffed Grouse had indeed crashed through a window on the second floor and was now perched on the bed, facing our dog, Marty. Marty, a small, non-hunting dog, became an instant legend that day for his unexpected “Ruffed Grouse hunting” prowess.
This wasn’t the first time I’d heard of such bizarre behavior. In fact, this phenomenon is well-documented and even has a name: “crazy flight.” References to it appear as far back as the early 20th century in classic hunting literature and ornithological texts. This incident, and the concept of “crazy flight,” really made me think about the flight capabilities of grouse. Can Grouse Fly, and if so, how do they manage such seemingly erratic and powerful flights?
Ruffed Grouse landed on a bed after crazy flight, with Marty the dog
Understanding “Crazy Flight” in Grouse
“Crazy flight” describes a specific behavior in Ruffed Grouse where they fly at high speeds and over considerable distances. This typically occurs during the transition from summer to autumn, just as the leaves start to change. Young grouse, particularly those in their first year, are most prone to exhibiting this behavior. These birds have been observed making long flights across open areas like highways, large fields, and even into urban environments like New York City. Tragically, these flights often result in collisions with windows and other obstacles, highlighting both the power and potential danger of this behavior. It’s a dramatic demonstration of how grouse can fly, sometimes to their own detriment.
Victor C. Friesen, in his article “The Crazy Flight Phenomenon of the Ruffed Grouse” published in “The Blue Jay,” a Canadian journal, referenced John Audubon’s observations from 1820. Audubon described this behavior as “partial sorties,” noting the sudden and seemingly random flights of these birds.
William Harden Foster, a renowned painter and avid Ruffed Grouse hunter, called it the “crazy” season. He wrote about the widespread recognition of this period among grouse enthusiasts, noting that grouse seemed to “dash hither and yon,” often colliding with buildings, wires, and other obstructions. Foster also mentioned the skepticism of some experienced hunters who believed that the falling autumn leaves made the grouse unusually nervous, leading to these extraordinary actions.
Foster’s writings from nearly a century ago highlight the ongoing debate surrounding the causes of crazy flight. While the exact reasons remain somewhat debated, the scientific community has developed more grounded and widely accepted theories to explain why grouse can fly in this seemingly erratic way.
What Drives Grouse to “Crazy Flight”?
While fear is a natural motivator for flight in grouse – they will fly swiftly and far when pursued by predators – this is a typical response throughout the year, not just during the “crazy flight” period. So, what else could explain this intense and sometimes self-destructive flight behavior?
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Foster questioned the idea that falling leaves alone could trigger such a drastic reaction. He argued that grouse, having lived in environments with falling leaves for millennia, wouldn’t suddenly panic annually due to this natural phenomenon, especially when other events like thunderstorms or heavy snow didn’t cause similar nervous reactions.
One intriguing early theory, noted by Friesen in a 1925 study, found that a significant number (7 out of 10) of grouse that died from crazy flight also had stomach worms. In 1947, Friesen also recounted an anecdote of a grouse with a bell attached to its wing that was later found dead with a broken neck after flying into a tree. The suggestion was that irritation, whether from parasites or an external annoyance like a bell, could trigger a similar, panicked flight response. This could suggest that internal or external irritants might influence how grouse can fly and the circumstances surrounding their flight.
However, later studies did not consistently find a correlation with stomach worms. Another theory in 1927 proposed that Ruffed Grouse had “inherited the instinct of migration” (Friesen 1971). But by 1948, this idea was disproven by studies showing no consistent direction in the crazy flights.
Food has also been considered as a potential factor. One specific theory pointed to “moldy and fermented rose hips.” However, as Friesen noted, a decade-long study in New York State ruled out rose hips as a significant food source for Ruffed Grouse, debunking this particular food-related theory.
A more widely accepted, and perhaps more plausible, idea revolves around a grouse’s selective feeding habits. Foster wrote about this concept, suggesting:
“The logical answer to why grouse move considerable distances is because of their quest for food. A grouse eats almost everything, from grasshoppers to acorns, with one ornithology listing over a hundred known dietary items. The peculiar thing is that the grouse is a decided gourmet. It will seemingly ignore abundant food sources that are known to be part of its diet and travel long distances for some specific item.”
Foster was interested in how grouse could seemingly disappear from areas where they were usually found, even when food was plentiful, often frustrating inexperienced hunters. This highlights that the search for specific food sources could be a driver of why and how grouse can fly over long distances.
Interestingly, John Audubon’s extensive research, involving over 50,000 Ruffed Grouse flushes, resulted in only six accidental deaths. This underscores the remarkable ability of grouse to navigate dense cover and avoid obstacles in flight, a skill well-known to anyone who has tried grouse hunting. It makes the “crazy flight” phenomenon even more puzzling – if grouse are such skilled fliers, why do these incidents of seemingly uncontrolled flight occur?
The various theories surrounding crazy flight only add to the mystique of this behavior and the overall flight capabilities of grouse.
Modern Science Explains Grouse “Crazy Flight”
The most crucial insights into “crazy flight” relate to the age of the birds and the time of year. This period coincides with the breakup of family broods, forcing young grouse to establish their own territories.
Friesen cited Edminster (1947) who offered a detailed explanation:
“Edminster (1947) provides us with one of the most detailed explanations of the crazy flight phenomenon. Young Ruffed Grouse become quarrelsome as they attain sexual maturity in fall. A bird may be driven away by a member of its own brood, and its flight may be reckless as it seeks to flee its tormentor. This bird must find a territory elsewhere, but it may encounter further hostility from other grouse already established there. With continued harassment, the grouse will become ‘more nervous’ and ‘more desperate’ because of its ‘growing inferiority complex.’ It will thus fly out of its normal habitat, and on occasions, fly against objects in those un- familiar surroundings.”
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection supports this explanation, stating, “In early fall, many grouse exhibit a dispersal behavior commonly referred to as ‘crazy flight.’ At this time of year, grouse are often seen in unusual habitats or are victims of collisions with trees, cars, or houses, etc. This strong urge to disperse is largely exhibited by young birds, whereas adults tend to remain within the previous year’s home range.”
This territorial dispersal, driven by young grouse seeking new homes and facing aggression from both siblings and established adults, appears to be the most scientifically supported explanation for “crazy flight.” It’s not necessarily a “crazy” flight in the sense of being random or inexplicable, but rather a desperate and disoriented flight driven by social pressures and the urgency to find new territory. It highlights how grouse can fly powerfully, but also that inexperience and stress can lead to less controlled and more dangerous flight paths.
The Significance of “Crazy Flight” for Grouse Hunting
While the mystery of “crazy flight” has been pondered for centuries, its direct impact on modern grouse hunting is relatively minor. The early September grouse hunting seasons, common in the era of market hunting, are largely a thing of the past. Today’s hunting seasons are generally designed to begin after this dispersal period, minimizing the impact on these more vulnerable young birds.
Just as the arrival of Blue Jays can signal the migration of woodcock, the onset of “crazy flights” can indicate the breakup of grouse broods. However, unlike woodcock migration, this grouse dispersal typically happens before hunting season opens in most states. This thoughtful timing ensures that hunters are less likely to encounter grouse in this agitated and vulnerable state.
Foster touched upon this shift in hunting practices in his book “New England Grouse Shooting”:
“The gunner of the earlier period started in on the first of September when the young birds were still in flocks. The country gunner knew where many of these used to start sixty or seventy pa’tridges in a day; he may be remembering those early-season trips when he went from one to another of these spotted broods. To start six or eight of them on a certain well-remembered day would not be at all improbable. This might well mean sixty or seventy different birds if the flocks ran large. But the same gunner, on the same year, didn’t move those sixty birds after the middle of October… Today our open seasons do not begin until after the birds are scattered and the seasons are much shorter.”
The day Marty “hunted” a grouse from our bed, amidst shattered glass, sparked my curiosity about this strange behavior. It led me on a fascinating journey through 200 years of observations, theories, and the captivating history of understanding the Ruffed Grouse phenomenon known as “crazy flight.” And it all started with a simple question in my mind: can grouse fly? The answer, as we’ve explored, is a resounding yes, and their flight is far more complex and intriguing than we might initially realize.
