This week’s featured animal is the white-tailed ptarmigan. Like the turkey from last week, the white-tailed ptarmigan is also a ground bird but lives exclusively at high altitudes at or above tree line, including in Rocky Mountain National Park.

1. A group of white-tailed ptarmigan are referred to as a “congregation, ” “covey” and “invisibleness” of ptarmigan. Individual white-tailed ptarmigan are also referred to as snow quail.

2. Tree line in Colorado is between 11,000 and 12,000 feet, and white-tailed ptarmigan spend their entire lives at or above this elevation in the alpine tundra.

3. This beautiful bird is the smallest bird in the grouse family in North America.

4. Ptarmigan have unique adaptations to survive in their cold climate habitat, including feathers around their nostrils to help warm the air it breathes and feathers around its legs and feet for warmth.

5. Another adaptation of the white-tailed ptarmigan is their cryptic coloration, which refers to their perfectly camouflaged feathers that turn pure white in winter to blend into snow and molt back to speckled gray, brown and white to blend into the lichen-covered rocks of the tundra.

BONUS: White-tailed ptarmigan will burrow into the snow to stay warm. When snuggled in like this, their white camouflage makes them almost impossible to see on a white landscape.

Dawn Wilson is a professional and award-winning nature photographer who lives in Estes Park year-round. You can see more of her work, join one of her Rocky tours, and purchase prints and calendars at DawnWilsonPhotography.com or follow her on Instagram: @dawnwilsonphoto