Grouse, any of a number of game birds in the family Tetraonidae (order Galliformes). In addition to species called grouse, the group includes several birds known by particular names, such as the capercaillie and prairie chicken (see below) and the ptarmigan. The order Columbiformes contains the sandgrouse. The most famous Old World member is the black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix), of Wales, Scotland, Scandinavia, and north-central Europe; a related form (L. mlokosiewiczi) occurs in the Caucasus. The male, known as blackcock, may be 55 cm (22 inches) long and weigh almost 2 kg (about 4 pounds). He is iridescent blue-black, with white wing bars and undertail coverts; his tail curls outward like a lyre. The female, known as gray hen, is mottled brown, barred with black; she is smaller than the male. Several cocks display together in what is called a lek: they inflate red combs over their eyes, spread their tails, and circle in a crouch, quivering.
The best-known North American species is the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). In New England it is generally called a partridge, although it is not a true partridge. Ruffed grouse live mainly on berries, fruits, seeds, and buds but also take much animal food. Both the male and female are 40–50 cm (15.5–19.75 inches) long, with a black band on the fan-shaped tail. The male’s ruff consists of erectile black feathers on the sides of the neck. He is famous for drumming—beating his wings rapidly against the air—to proclaim his territory. In courtship display he struts, hissing, with tail cocked up before the hen.
The spruce grouse (Falcipennis canadensis), found in northerly conifer country, is nearly as big as a ruffed grouse, the male darker. Its flesh usually has the resinous taste of conifer buds and needles, its chief food. Also of evergreen forests is the blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus), a big, dark bird, plainer and longer-tailed than the spruce grouse and heavier than the ruffed grouse.
Two species that display spectacularly are the sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and the sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). The former is the largest New World grouse, exceeded in the family only by the capercaillie. A male may be 75 cm (30 inches) long and weigh 3.5 kg (about 7.5 pounds). This species inhabits sagebrush flats. The sharptail, a 45-cm (18-inch) bird weighing 1 kg (about 2 pounds), is wild from Quebec and Michigan westward across Canada and southwestward to New Mexico.
The capercaillie, or capercailzie (Tetrao urogallus), exclusively a European game bird, is the largest member of the grouse family. The male capercaillie, sometimes called cock of the woods, is about 85 cm (33.5 inches) long, with black and brown plumage glossed with blue and green. The hen, about one-third smaller, is mottled brown with a rusty breast patch. Hybrids of capercaillie and black grouse are fertile, suggesting a very close relationship.
The prairie chickens, or pinnated grouse (Tympanuchus), are North American game birds also noted for lek displays. The greater prairie chicken (T. cupido) is a 45-cm (17.5-inch) bird with brown plumage strongly barred below and a short rounded dark tail; a male may weigh almost 1 kg. It occurs locally from Michigan to Saskatchewan, south to Missouri, New Mexico, and coastal Texas and Louisiana; northernmost birds are somewhat migratory. One subspecies, Attwater’s prairie chicken (T. cupido attwateri), became rare as its tall-grass habitat came under cultivation. The lesser prairie chicken (T. pallidicinctus), smaller and paler, is limited to the arid west-central Great Plains. The heath hen (T. cupido cupido), extinct since 1932, was the eastern race of the greater prairie chicken. The sharp-tailed grouse is locally called prairie chicken.