White-Tailed Ptarmigan
October 2003 – Mt. David trail, Washington
My assumption is that this is a White-Tailed Ptarmigan… only because it’s most likely this is the type of Ptarmigan one would see in the North Cascades. The Rock Ptarmigan has a more northern range (though, they do overlap in this area). There is some non-white on the edge of the tail, which might lead one to think this could be a Rock Ptarmigan, but when the birds are molting and mottled, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from details like that.