This is Bird Note.

With its rubbery sounding rattles and clownish red eyebrows, the

Tarmincan is quite the standout northern bird, and it's particularly well

adapted to winter time in the snowy realms it calls home. Like Cinderella at

midnight, this bird is utterly transformed by winter.

During its autumn molt, the Tarmincan sheds its model brown plumage for a cloak of

snowy white and skip the glass slippers as the winter approaches the Tarmincan's

feet grow feathers. Even the birds claws grow longer and that added surface area

means the Tarmincan is ready to travel over the snow. It practically has its own

set of snowshoes. If you are I tried to travel across Tarmincan turf in winter,

we'd likely sink into the snow up to our shins, our thighs, or even our hips,

but not this bird. The Tarmincan's genus name, legopus, is a combination of the

Greek words meaning foot and hair. Like a rabbit, legopus, hair foot, the name

is a nod to another big footed northener, the snowshoe hair. For more on the

Tarmincan and other birds we feature, check out our website, birdnote.org.

For birdnote, I'm Mary McCann. Birdnote gives you the sounds of birds

every day and you get the sights as well when you follow us on Instagram at

Birdnote Radio.