To Rick Romea and Tweeters:

Rick's recent post to Tweeters wondering about the blue grouse and ruffed
grouse brought to mind a similar question I had a couple years ago about a
blue grouse versus a spruce grouse in trying to ID a mystery grouse Jack
Bowling in B.C. provided some helpful information about grouses in general,
so I thought I re-post his information about that

"Anyone familiar with both species (blue and spruce) would never get them
mixed up: Blues are a noticeably bigger bird than Spruce Grouse. Here in
central BC this time of year, when one climbs a mountain you usually find
Ruffeds in the mixed woods at the bottom of the mountain, Spruce in the
conifers halfway up, Blues in the sub-alpine krumholtz (with sizeable chicks
this time of year [August]), and White-tailed Ptarmigan in the alpine. Yes,
the base color of a "male" Blue Grouse is a bluish to slate-gray whereas
that of a female tends more toward medium brownish-gray. Female Spruce
Grouse in any plumage usually show a most beautiful complicated barred and
mottled pattern on the underparts which is unique among our grouse species.
I would tend to favor Blue Grouse for your mystery bird due to the fact that
you didn't comment on the barring of the underparts."

Hope this might be of some help although it doesn't get into a full
description of the Ruffeds v. Blues.

Franny Drobny
Seattle, Washington


[INFO] -- Content Manager:
Privileged and confidential communication. If you are not the addressee, you may not read, copy, or distribute this email. If you receive this email in error, please advise us by return email and call (206) 587-0700. Thank you.