Scientific name:
Lagopus

Natural spread:
Northern Europe, North-Asia, North America

with the three types of the snow-chickens becomes the plumage also in the coloring the particular life-conditions this Z. T. high-northern birds tried on. As exception among all birds, the plumage colors almost completely white in the winter; only the tax-feathers remain (with exception of the American type) black.

Types One knows: 1. the 35-36 cm big Alps or rock-snow-chicken (Lagopus mutus); 2. the approximately equally-big white-tail-snow-chicken (L). leucrurus, the high mountain regions of the occidental North America and 3. the 38-41 cm long bog-snow-chicken (L). lagopus.

Spread Alps and bog-snow-chickens are widespread as single rough-foot-chickens of holarktisch. The Alps-snow-chicken broods and spends the winter zirkumpolar in the arctic and sub-arctic regions of Eurasia and North America as well as on Greenland, Iceland and pointed-mountains. As disperse relics from the last ice age live in Alps-snow-chickens also Scotland's high mountain region-regions, the Alps, the Pyrenees and Japan (Hondo) as well as Newfoundland's alpine situations. Bog-snow-chickens populate the same habitat largely if they don't advance so far northward either and also warmer, lower mountain-situations prefer. In the high Venn (Belgium), these birds were naturalized successfully.

Shape-changes Through its almost nonstop molt, snow-chickens fit the changing environment-conditions for its plumage: the long claws and toes are repelled in the spring, brown plumage-places appear and let merged the birds before the background of the first brown Erdflecken with the surroundings. Snow-chickens retain its white Handschwingen also in the brown summer-dress; the cocks molt four times, however, the hens change its plumage only three times. In the autumn, gray feathers appear with the Alps-snow-chicken before the Zehenbefiederung, long claws and the pure-white plumage of the winter-dress are trained. Female snow-chickens begin with its spring-molt usually somewhat in time in the year and already are well camouflaged during the brood so. With the Scottish bog-snow-chicken (Lagopus lagopus scoticus), who is a subtype of the bog-snow-chicken, the brown plumage-coloring remains gotten also in the winter-dress; this is a special adaptation on the snow-poor winters of the British islands surely.

Nutrition In the winter, snow-chickens live on various plant-sharing (needles, leaves, buds, seeds, lichens), which they make themselves through long, myself-dug walks accessible in the snow if necessary. Also to resting or sleeping, rough-foot-chickens often dig snow-caves, that they however only rarely use many times.

In its remaining biology, the snow-chickens agree largely with the other rough-foot-chickens.