“They especially like those pretty little meadows that backpackers and hikers like to go to, with the pink heather and the flowers blooming in the little creeks below the snow bank. I like to joke that the main habitat feature that whitetail ptarmigan select for is a pretty view,” said Terry Frederick, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
These birds need the cold, high alpine climates backpackers love to enjoy. They migrate between lower elevation winter areas and higher elevation summer habitat above the treeline.
Their habitat is quickly shrinking as climate change warms the areas they depend on. That’s why the service has proposed listing them
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