The Sooty Grouse is up to 55 cm in length. The male is gray to bluish-gray, with a red-to-yellow-orange comb over his eyes. It has a yellow neck sac surrounded by white. The female is spotted brown with a dark tail. Male grouse in the Rocky Mountains have a red neck sac instead of a yellow one.
They are found from British Columbia south to California. The sooty grouse was the blue grouse until 2006 when the blue grouse was split into two species, the other being the dusky grouse. The dusky grouse is found in the Rocky Mountains, from the Southern Yukon and Northern British Columbia, south into northern Arizona and western New Mexico
They are fond of bush areas in coastal rainforests, burned areas, mountain forests, and subalpine forest clearings. In warm months, they eat seeds, berries, and insects. In the winter, this grouse eats conifer needles. Some are short-distance migratory and, depending on where the food is, travel to either higher or lower elevations.
The female lays up to 10 eggs in a scrape lined with pine needles and grass. The nest is usually hidden under a bush, log, rocky overhang, or small tree. The female incubates the eggs and cares for the chicks. The chicks hatch after 25 days and soon begin foraging for food. They fledge in about 10 days.
During mating season, the male sooty grouse often perches on a log or post and calls out with a loud, booming hoot that can be heard for miles. The comb over his eyes stands up, and he fans out his tail and puffs out his neck to display his neck sack. very impressive show to observe.