This state's classification carries no date range for the species.
WI DNR's ruffed grouse page explicitly warns hunters to know the difference between ruffed grouse and spruce grouse 'to avoid the accidental harvest of spruce grouse' because it is a state-threatened species. Present in Wisconsin but not legally huntable.
Spruce grouse is state-threatened and not legally huntable in Wisconsin, but has a real, narrow, well-documented range rather than being a blank gap. Independent sourcing (a Wildlife Society Bulletin habitat-use study conducted in northern Wisconsin, and a companion Wisconsin DNR/Natural Heritage-affiliated species account) states the species is "almost entirely restricted to coniferous forests in the northernmost two tiers of counties," found "only in the northernmost counties" of the state. Within that band, the species is a habitat specialist rather than a generalist: the field study's 56 observations were all within or adjacent to black spruce-tamarack swamp complexes, with a documented preference for black spruce specifically, plus adjacent upland jack pine in summer and jack/red pine stands in winter. Dedicated protected examples of this exact habitat type are named directly in DNR's own State Natural Areas program (e.g. Spruce Grouse Swamp), consistent with the species' swamp-complex specialism rather than broad northern-forest presence.
No formal population survey program exists for this species in this state.
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