Sharp-Tailed Grouse (Tétras à queue fine) (Oiseaux du Québec)

Sharp-Tailed Grouse (Tétras à queue fine)

Tympanuchus phasianellus

Summary ²

The Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) (previously: Tetrao phasianellus), is a medium-sized prairie grouse. It is also known as the sharptail, and is known as "fire grouse" or "fire bird" by Native American Indians due to their reliance on brush fires to keep their habitat open....

Distribution ³

Sharp-tailed grouse are found from north-central Alaska, the Yukon
Territory, the Northwest Territories, northern Manitoba, northern
Ontario, and central Quebec south to eastern Washington, northeast Utah,
and Colorado. It occurs in the Great Plains from eastern Colorado to
northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northern Michigan [1,8,24].
Ranges of the six subspecies are as follows:

Northern sharp-tailed grouse - breeds in northern Manitoba, northern
Ontario and central Quebec [24].

Northwestern sharp-tailed grouse - resident in the Northwest Territories
from the Mackenzie River to Great Slave Lake [24].

Alaskan sharp-tailed grouse - resident in north-central Alaska east to
the southern Yukon territory, northern British Columbia, and northern
Alberta [24].

Columbian sharp-tailed grouse - resident from northern British Columbia
south to eastern Washington, western Montana, northern Utah, and western
Colorado [49]. Columbian sharp-tailed grouse range formerly extended to
California, Nevada, and New Mexico [23,33].

Prairie sharp-tailed grouse - resident from southeastern Manitoba,
southwestern Ontario, and the upper Peninsula of Michigan to northern
Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. Its range formerly extended to
northern Illinois [24].

Plains sharp-tailed grouse - resident from north-central Alberta and
central Saskatchewan south to Montana (except the extreme west),
northeastern Wyoming, northeastern Colorado, portions of Nebraska, South
Dakota, and North Dakota. Its range formerly extended to Kansas,
Oklahoma, and New Mexico [24].