Blue grouse Dendragapus obscurus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 17 inches
• Medium-sized, stocky, round-winged, chicken-like bird
• Long, squarish tail

Adult male:

• Yellow to orange comb over eye
• Yellow or purple-red (Rocky Mountain ssp.) neck sac, inflated in mating display, surrounded by white feathers
• Entirely dark plumage with faint mottling about back and upperwings
• Gray terminal band on tail (absent in northern Rocky Mountain birds)

Adult female:

• Brown plumage with dark brown and white marking to underparts
• Brown tail with grayish terminal band

Similar species:

Male Spruce Grouse has a breast barred with white, a barred back and a brown terminal band on the tail. Female Spruce Grouse has a narrow rusty terminal band on the tail and white barring on the underparts. Browner Ruffed Grouse has a black subterminal band on the tail and more white on the underparts.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.