* White-tailed ptarmigan prefer the high rock and heather slopes of the North Cascades. That of the spruce grouse gives rise to its name: spruce needles and kinnickinnick berries. There are several grouse species throughout the country, including ruffed grouse, spruce grouse, blue grouse (dusky and sooty), sharp-tailed grouse, and sage grouse. Spruce Grouse. Spruce grouse are most often found in—you guessed it—stands of spruce. Dusky grouse are considered forest grouse, but during different times of the year they utilize distinctly different habitat types. Dusky Grouse, Sooty Grouse, Blue Grouse, is the Bird with Three names! Knowing how to choose shot sizes and chokes for ruffed grouse hunting can change through the season. But this article focuses on ruffed grouse because they are the most numerous and widely distributed of them all. Ruffed grouse breasts on the right, spruce grouse on the left. In September, when most ruffed grouse hunting takes place in Oregon, ruffs are generally pretty close to water. Ruffed grouse in foreground. You will likely find ruffed grouse in thick alder thickets, birch forests, or where there are berries remaining from summer. Before you go grouse hunting, it helps to know where to go! Here in Alaska, they like the muskeg patches of black spruce, as well as mixed spruce forests, but they are almost always in and around spruce trees. Filmed June 24, 2018 in the mountion region of Okanagan Falls British Columbia (BC). Males have slate-colored upper parts, white-based neck feathers around the air sacs, and yellow-orange eye combs. Let’s be honest, there are a lot of mistakes that can be made while hunting upland game. Ruffed grouse are most commonly found in brushy riparian areas in eastern Oregon and in early-aged mixed woodlands in western Oregon, although birds may be found in pockets of good habitat nearly anywhere. The ruffed grouse is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "partridge", an unrelated phasianid, and occasionally confused with the grey partridge, a bird of open areas rather than woodlands. Both sexes have long, square tails which are unbarred. In the winter, dusky grouse live in the high country, roosting and feeding in stands of Douglas fir and lodge pole pine. The Dusky Grouse (until recently known as the Blue Grouse) is the largest of Montana's three species of mountain grouse. Blues are called "sooty grouse" on the Pacific side of the Cascades and "dusky" in the interior. https://www.thefield.co.uk/food/the-top-10-best-grouse-recipes-39776 Then, there are the Greater Sage-Grouse of the midwest prairies and the Gunnison Sage-Grouse found only in Colorado. In the spring, dusky grouse leave the high country and move to their breeding grounds. 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