Dusky grouse (formerly ‘blue grouse’) are a popular mountain forest grouse game species in Montana. This is a large grouse (larger than spruce grouse, smaller than a wild turkey) that lives in mountain forests, especially those dominated by ponderosa and lodgepole pine, quaking aspen, and firs. Males are a dark gray with purple air sacs on their neck and red eye combs that they display during the breeding season, along with performing flutter flights, when attempting to attract a mate. Their tail feathers are dark gray to almost black with a white band across the end that can be seen when they fan their tail. The females are highly camouflaged with mottled dark gray-brown feathers.
FWP used to monitor these grouse using breeding season hooting counts, but currently populations of forest grouse are rarely and inconsistently surveyed. Estimating the size of dusky grouse populations has been difficult due to widely dispersed and relatively remote habitats, relatively low bird densities, variable detection rates, and inconsistent survey protocols. In general, there are currently few systematic surveys conducted in North America to evaluate their population trends, which significantly limits effective management of this species. Moreover, formal evaluations of survey methods have never been conducted for this species. To properly manage these gamebirds, reliable survey techniques need to be developed, tested, and implemented, which are the goals of this project.
