Medium-sized chickenlike bird. Males have a slate gray head and neck, a red eyebrow, a black chest, and white spots on lower belly.
The Franklin's subspecies of Spruce Grouse in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia have a darker black breast without white barring.
Eats primarily pine and spruce needles in the canopy, but also forages on the ground for insects, fresh growth on shrubs, and berries.
Plump bird of spruce forests. Females come in two color morphs, gray and chestnut. This female has chestnut mottling throughout with strong horizontal barring on the underparts.
Males have a slate gray head and neck, a red eyebrow, a black chest, and white spots on lower belly. The tail is either dark or tipped in chestnut depending on location. This individual from Maine has chestnut tips.
Feeds primarily on needles from spruce and pines, but when not eating needles they forage on the ground, eating fresh growth from shrubs and understory plants.
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A stout chickenlike bird with a small bill, short but thick legs, and medium-length tail that can be fanned into a semicircle.
Smaller than a Dusky Grouse, larger than a California Quail.
crow-sizedSpruce Grouse has two very different forms with differences in plumage, behavior, and genetics: "Franklin’s" Spruce Grouse (subspecies franklinii) inhabits montane forests in parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Alberta, and British Columbia. Most of the remaining subspecies are of the "Canada" Spruce Grouse type (canadensis, labradorius, osgoodi, atratus, canace, torridus). Male "Franklin’s" Spruce Grouse lacks the rufous tail tips of "Canada"; and "Franklin’s" has uppertail coverts tipped in white, lacking in "Canada."
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