Oregon · UplandSooty grouse

Sooty grouse is the western-Oregon half of what Oregon regulations still refer to collectively as "blue grouse" (sooty and dusky grouse were split into separate species in 2006 but continue to share one Oregon hunting season and reporting category). Independent species-comparison sourcing describing Oregon specifically states sooty grouse "range spans the Coast and Cascade mountain ranges, including the Warner Mountains," distinguishing it from dusky grouse's Blue-Mountains-only footprint. ODFW's own ongoing Sooty Grouse abundance/occupancy research (2011-2024) constrained its study area to montane forests of the Coast Range, Cascade Range, and Klamath regions of western/south-central Oregon, consistent with that range description. ODFW's 2021 Forest Grouse Parts Collection Summary corroborates with harvest-wing county data: western Oregon supplied 43% of statewide blue-grouse wings/tails, led by Douglas (45% of the western total), Clackamas (11%), Jackson (10%), and Linn (10%) counties. Because ODFW's own harvest reporting does not separately speciate sooty from dusky within the combined "blue grouse" category, this western-Oregon county breakdown is the best available proxy for sooty grouse's specific distribution, corroborated independently by both the Coast/Cascade/Warner range description and ODFW's own research study-area boundary.