(M. Leonard Photography/iStock by Getty Images) A male spruce grouse shows off its distinctive red eyebrow during a breeding display. Though much rarer than ruffed grouse, spruce grouse can be found in scattered parts of the Upper Peninsula, including Dickinson and Iron counties.

This time of year, I find myself thinking of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” and our own “partridge.”

In reality, North America has no native partridge — what we call partridge are ruffed grouse, a relative in the same family, the Phasianidae, which also includes quail, pheasants, turkeys, peafowl and the junglefowl that gave rise to domestic chickens.

The only true partridges in North America were introduced: the gray and the chukar, both originally from Eurasia, and the Himalayan snowcock that can only be found in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains.

The other two look a bit like our quail species; neither are common this far northeast and ones seen are likely escaped or released from captive-raised populations.

But North America does have a number of grouse species, including three that can occur in the Upper Peninsula — ruffed, spruce and sharp-tailed.

The ruffed is most familiar and abundant, though the population can have peaks and valleys. These cycles used to track over eight to 11 years, tied to snowshoe hare populations; when the hares are abundant it boosts predator numbers, which then turn to grouse as the snowshoe declines, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website, https://www.allaboutbirds.org.

Those cycles have become less defined as drought years affected the populations as well, said Ryan McGillviray, a wildlife technician at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Crystal Falls office.

This year seems to be a good one for ruffed grouse, however. They’ve been visible almost daily along Six Mile Lake Road.

But for Christmas, I think the boreal forest-loving spruce grouse is more fitting as a substitute for a partridge, even if normally unseen.

Its name is tied to a type of conifer that’s a popular choice for Christmas trees.

They’re likely the rarest of the U.P.’s grouse, McGillviray said. Though the sharp-tailed is fairly localized in the eastern Upper Peninsula — a reminder of when logging opened up the region to some prairie species — it does occur in enough numbers to allow a limited hunt.

Not so with the spruce grouse. McGillviray said in a lifetime spent in the Upper Peninsula and 10 years with the DNR he has only seen roughly a handful of the birds. The grouse, too, favors spruce bogs that can be difficult to access, he said.

The females do resemble ruffed grouse in being scaled with brown, buff and white. But male spruce grouse are considerably darker, black and brown with a red eyebrow it can flash when displaying.

Though elusive, the spruce grouse does have habits that lend themselves to an encounter if lucky enough to cross paths. The birds tend to be slow to react, even tolerant of humans, earning it he nickname “fool hen.” McGillviray said it will remain sitting in a tree even if approached.

“Not the brightest of birds,” McGillviray said.

This lack of fear might also be why it’s more rare, as it can make it more vulnerable to predation, he said. It is not, however, prized as a game bird like the ruffed grouse, even where it can be hunted, according to All About Birds — its diet of fir, spruce and pine needles gives their flesh too much taste of cleaners and air fresheners.

But mostly, the spruce grouse may be “very few and far between” in the Upper Peninsula because its preferred habitat has shrunk — black spruce is harvested for pulp and paper production as well as lumber. Black spruce is slow-growing as well, so regenerating areas can take considerable time, McGillviray said.

And the Upper Peninsula is at the southern edge of the spruce grouse’s range, which stretches across Canada and into Alaska.

The DNR does manage habitat for spruce grouse in Michigan, where it is listed as a “species of concern.” Wisconsin’s population is classified as threatened. Such spruce bogs are good for moose as well, McGillviray said.

He knows of populations in northern Dickinson County, the Deer Lake area in northeastern Iron County, Drummond Lake Road in Baraga County also has access into the right type of habitat, he said.

Still, “most people have no clue they’re even around here,” McGillviray noted.

So if you catch sight of a darker-colored grouse while on the snowmobile or ATV trails in those areas, take a moment to appreciate this rare bird of the far north woods.

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.