Sooty Grouse

     The Sooty Grouse is a species of forest-dwelling Grouse native to North America’s Pacific Coast Ranges. It’s closely related to the Dusky Grouse and both species were previously considered as two subspecies for a single species under the name of the ‘Blue Grouse’. The Sooty grouse used to be considered the darker, coastal subspecies of the Blue grouse that occupies the relatively moist west-side habitats of the birds’ distribution range.

     The male Sooty grouse is mainly dark in color, with yellow throat air sacs surrounded by white, and yellow wattles over the eyes. Female birds are mottled-brown with dark brown and white marks on the underparts. Both sexes of the Sooty grouse have long, square unbarred tails which are colored with light grey at the end.

     The female Sooty grouse lays 5 – 10 eggs and incubates them for 25 – 28 days. Young chicks can make short flights at age of 8 – 9 days and are full-grown at about 13 weeks. There are currently 4 recognized subspecies for the Sooty grouse which are distributed across the bird’s habitat range. They can be found in the southern portions of Alaska and Yukon, south along the Pacific Coast to northern California, and east to the Rocky Mountains (New Mexico to Alberta).