Photo of the Day #732: Grouse

Hi Brian, when I get back to my "home library" (read: a computer that is not attached to a server that blocks reference photographs!) I can confirm, but this looks to me like a Dusky Grouse, Dendragapus obscurus, native to the North American Rockies, preferring the edges of coniferous or mixed forest areas... you may want to ask GrrlScientist http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/ to post this on her blog to allow the several ornithologists there an opportunity to confirm or deny.

Definitely a Dusky Grouse -- Sooty Grouse is only found in the coast ranges. However, I don't think this is a female. The evenly gray feathers coming in on the breast are what would be expected on an adult male. Females should show distinct black subterminal bands on those feathers, producing a barred pattern. So I supect that this is a young male just molting in his first breeding plumage.

Thanks psweet!

re. Dusky vs Sooty Grouse from Western Birds, Volume 38, No3, 2007:

"In 2006 the American Ornithologistsâ Union checklist committee split the Blue Grouse into the Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and the Sooty Grouse (D. fuliginosus) (Banks et al. 2006). The occurs in the intermontane West and ranges west to eastern Washington, eastern Nevada, and northern Arizona, while the Grouse occurs nearer the Pacific coast and is the species found in California. The Sooty Grouse thus replaces the Blue Grouse on the California list."

[Banks, R. C., Cicero, C., Dunn, J. L., Kratter, A. W., Rasmussen, P. C., Remsen, J. V., Jr., Rising, J. D., and Stotz, D. F. 2006. Forty-seventh supplement to the American Ornithologistsâ Union Check-list of North Birds. Auk 123:926-936.]