Chickenlike bird with a long, dark tail tipped in light gray. Plumage is darker overall than Dusky Grouse. Males expose bare yellow throat patches during courtship displays.
Chickenlike bird with a small head and long tail. Females are speckled in brown and black with a dark tail.
Chickenlike bird with a small head. Juveniles look like females.
Chickenlike bird with a long, dark tail tipped in light gray. Plumage is darker overall than Dusky Grouse.
Individuals in the Sierra Nevada of California are paler gray overall than individuals elsewhere.
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A heavyset, chickenlike bird with a short bill, short, strong legs, and a medium-length tail that can be fanned into a semicircle.
Larger than a Spruce Grouse, smaller than a Wild Turkey.
between crow and gooseOrnithologists recognize four subspecies, which differ mostly in the shape of their tail feathers and the pattern on those feathers. In the northernmost, sitkensis, of Alaska and British Columbia, males have a narrow gray tail band and females are rather rusty above. In fuliginosus, found on coastal slopes of British Colombia to California, females are much grayer above. On the eastern slopes of the coastal mountain ranges, from Washington to Nevada, subspecies sierrae has a broad gray tail band. And from Fresno County south to Kern County, California, the similar howardi has an even broader tail band and longer tail. The northern subspecies tend to be darker (especially males) than the southern.
Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies(Order: Galliformes, Family: Phasianidae)
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