Blue
grouse are bluish-gray, chickenlike birds
restricted in Arizona to elevations above
8,500 feet in mixed conifer and aspen forests.
As a consequence, these birds are only found
in the White, Blue, Escudilla, Chuska, and
Buckskin (North Kaibab) mountains, and on
the San Francisco Peaks where they were introduced
in the mid- 1970s. Males are measurably larger
than females, 2-year-old "cocks" weighing
up to 3 pounds as opposed to the adult female's
average weight of between 1.75 to 2 pounds.
In comparison, firstyear birds or poults
typically weigh only 16 to 28 ounces during
the early days of the September hunting season.
Natural History
Blue grouse in Arizona do not migrate downhill during the winter months
as they do in the more northern states. Instead, they spend the winter
roosting in Douglas-fir trees, subsisting on needles until spring when
the males form small "leks" or strutting grounds, which they occupy from
April through June. Oftentimes these leks are located on a fallen log or
in a small clearing in the forest, where the cock attempts to engage any
hen that comes his way with soft "hooting" displays and "flutter flights." The
peak of mating activity usually takes place during the last part of May
or the first week of June, after which the male goes off to leave the hen
to nest and raise the chicks on her own. Most broods are hatched between
mid-June and mid-July during which time the hen and poults feed primarily
on forbs and insects. Four to six is an average brood size, the young staying
with the hen through the fall months. Fall usually finds the hens and poults
at the edge of mountain meadows and in old burns feeding on forbs, while
the now solitary males tend to favor aspen thickets and other dense cover.
Hunting and Trapping History
The first legal season on blue grouse in Arizona did not take place until
1964 when 33 hunters spent 49 days to harvest 44 grouse. Since that time,
a variety of grouse season dates have been authorized, but the number of
grouse hunters has remained low due to the birds general scarcity and the
steep terrain and high elevations of their habitat. Hunter numbers have
never reached 800 in any given year, and the annual harvest since 1973
has been only 300 to 700 grouse.
Blue
grouse are bluish-gray, chickenlike birds
restricted in Arizona to elevations above
8,500 feet in mixed conifer and aspen forests.
As a consequence, these birds are only found
in the White, Blue, Escudilla, Chuska, and
Buckskin (North Kaibab) mountains, and on
the San Francisco Peaks where they were introduced
in the mid- 1970s. Males are measurably larger
than females, 2-year-old "cocks" weighing
up to 3 pounds as opposed to the adult female's
average weight of between 1.75 to 2 pounds.
In comparison, firstyear birds or poults
typically weigh only 16 to 28 ounces during
the early days of the September hunting season. 
