Sage Grouse

The Sage Grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, is a large grouse.

Adults have a long pointed tail and legs with feathers to the toes. Adult males have a yellow patch over the eye, are greyish on top with a white breast, a dark brown throat and a black belly; two yellowish sacs on the neck are inflated during courtship display. Adult females are mottled grey-brown with a light brown throat and dark belly.

The Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus minimus, is almost identical in appearance but about a third smaller in size and restricted in range to southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The largest population resides in the Gunnison Basin region in Colorado.

The breeding habitat for the Sage Grouse is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. They nest on the ground under sagebrush or grass patches.

They are permanent residents. Some move short distances to lower elevations for winter.

These birds forage on the ground. They are mainly eat sagebrush, also insects and other plants. They are not able to digest hard seeds like other grouse.

This bird's numbers are declining due to loss of habitat and its range has shrunk in historical times, having been extirpated from British Columbia, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico.