It is closely related to the sooty grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus), and the two were previously considered a single species, the blue grouse.. Relatively large and moderately long-tailed, grayish grouse. The dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) is a species of forest-dwelling grouse native to the Rocky Mountains in North America.
Description.
Young birds also eat ants, spittle bugs, and other small insects. Males have highly specialized lateral cervical apteria (bare patches on the lower neck/upper breast) that are exposed during display. The ranges of Dusky Grouse and Sooty Grouse meet and overlap on the east slope of the Cascades, creating a zone of confusion between the two species. Definitive Basic male Dusky Grouse. Dusky Grouse eat mostly plants, but also eat large quantities of grasshoppers and beetles in summer and early autumn.
Until 2006, the dusky grouse and sooty grouse were both called the blue grouse, but they are now recognized as two separate species (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 2018). Dusky Grouse Male 47-57 cm, c. 1245 g; female 44-48 cm, c. 850 g. Relatively large grouse; male mostly grey or slate-coloured, lacking black breast of Falcipennis canaden Dusky Grouse feed most heavily very early in the morning and again near dusk, mostly on the ground except when eating buds, shoots, leaves, or fruit from taller trees.
The Sooty Grouse is a large game bird of the wet mountain forests of the Pacific Coast.
Adults have a long square tail, gray at the end. Dusky Grouse is locally fairly common in all three of these areas in suitable habitat, mostly at middle elevations but extending up to tree line in the subalpine zone in some localities. Supercilliary apteria (‘combs') of males change color from yellow to red during courtship display. The dusky grouse is a very striking bird with beautiful plumage, although it looks very similar to another grouse species. Grouse / ɡ r aʊ s / are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae.Grouse are frequently assigned to the subfamily Tetraoninae (sometimes Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondrial DNA sequence studies, and applied by the American Ornithologists' Union, ITIS, and others. Males are a steely gray-blue, but during courtship they reveal orange eye combs and yellow-orange air sacs in the neck. They eat needles, buds, berries, and insects.
Females are intricately camouflaged in brown, buff, and white.