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Mystery bird: dusky grouse, Dendragapus obscurus

Thanks to new DNA information, this beautiful bird was recently elevated to full species status after languishing as a subspecies for decades

Dusky grouse, Dendragapus obscurus, formerly known as the blue grouse, photographed in the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming, USA.

Image: Terry Sohl, June 2008 [velociraptorize]. I encourage you to purchase images from this generous photographer.
Canon 40D, 400 5.6L

Question: Not only do living things evolve, but our understanding of them evolves as well. This beautiful bird is one such example of how scientists' ideas change as new information becomes available. Can you identify this bird species and tell me what species we thought it was just a few years ago?

Response: This is an adult female dusky grouse, Dendragapus obscurus. Originally considered to be the paler inland subspecies of the blue grouse, new DNA evidence shows this bird is actually a separate species from its coastal cousin, the much darker coloured sooty grouse, Dendragapus fuliginosus.

These two taxa were originally regarded as separate species based on Brooks' 1929 analysis of their morphology, behavior and vocalizations, but they were then lumped together into one species and remained so for much of the twentieth century. After Barrowclough et al. published their DNA-based work in 2004, these two taxa regained their full species status.

If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.

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