Males have a yellow comb against a slate-blue head, while females are browner. In Southeast Alaska’s wet evergreen forests, their foods change with the seasons.
The male has a yellow comb on its slate-blue head and a pale gray band at the tip of its black tail.
Sooty Grouse inhabit western North American forests and eat conifer needles, broad-leaved vegetation, flowers, fruit and invertebrates. On Vancouver Island, spring and summer diets differed with age and sex.
A study published in 1982 examined 811 crops collected near Campbell River from 1957 to 1966. The crop temporarily stores swallowed food. Nine plant species supplied more than 80% of the plant diet, showing that a relatively small set of plants provided most plant food.
Females apparently ate more broad-leaved plants than males in spring. Chicks up to approximately three weeks old fed largely on invertebrates, especially ants. Adults and chicks therefore had different meals within the forest, from foliage to small animals near the ground.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
California’s 2008 conservation account identified habitat degradation as a concern for the southern subspecies D. f. howardi. It highlighted logging that removes clusters of large conifers and heavy grazing in brood-rearing meadows. Regional protection can retain mature trees, meadows and herbaceous cover used by broods.