Taxonomic
history
Originally
described 1873 as single species, Blue Grouse, with 8 subspecies in two groups “Dusky” (D. o. obscurus, D. o.
richardsonii, D. o. oreinus and D. o. pallidus
: Rocky Mountain and Great Basin ranges from Arizona and New Mexico north
to Yukon and Northwest Territories). And “Sooty” D. o. fuliginosus, D. o.
sierrae, D. o. sitkensis and D. o.
howardi : Sierra Nevada, Cascade Mountains, and coastal ranges to southeast
Alaska)
“The groups were split into two species, D.
obscurus and D. fuliginosus (AOU 1931), but
subsequently reunited by Peters (1934) and the AOU (1944). These
taxonomic actions were controversial …... The literature (Munro & Cowan 1947;
Jewett et al . 1953) cited as providing justification for
lumping sooty and dusky grouse (e.g. Mayr & Short 1970)
did not include any of the quantitative description and analysis that has come
to be expected for avian contact zones (e.g. Rising 1983). Rather, species accounts for blue grouse refer only
to the existence of a few intermediate specimens from a small number of
localities in the mountains of north-central Washington and south-central
British Columbia (Pitelka 1941; Munro & Cowan 1947; Aldrich 1963). Thus, the
species status of blue grouse has not been resolved.” (Barrowclough
et al 2004)
Current re-organization reverts to 1931 classification
with subspecies groups from original
description comprising a coastal species Sooty Grouse Dendragapus fuliginosus
and an inland species Dusky Grouse Dendragapus
obscurus. There is a geographically small (relative to entire range ) area of
interbreeding in central WA and south-central
British Columbia in the Okanagan Valley.