Spruce Grouse Identification

Male (Spruce)

Medium-sized chickenlike bird. Males have a slate gray head and neck, a red eyebrow, a black chest, and white spots on lower belly.

Male (Franklin's)

The Franklin's subspecies of Spruce Grouse in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and British Columbia have a darker black breast without white barring.

Male (Spruce)

Medium-sized chickenlike bird. Male has a gray head and neck, a red eyebrow, a black chest, and white spots on lower belly.

Female

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.

Male (Spruce)

Female (Spruce)

"Bathes" in dust, especially when molting body feathers.

Chick

Male (Spruce)

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.

Female

Eats primarily pine and spruce needles in the canopy, but also forages on the ground for insects, fresh growth on shrubs, and berries.

Male (Franklin's)

Female

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.

Habitat