# help me identify a bird



## jeff788 (Aug 7, 2009)

I have a dumb question for everybody here. Last year was my first year hunting any sort of bird and am still trying to get better at identifying them. I was deer hunting on Saturday on some private land just South of Jordanelle. It is mixed sage/oak brush at around 6500-7000 feet. There are a few aspens and a few juniper trees here and there, but mostly just sage and oak brush. I was walking a sage brush covered ridge line and about had a heart attack when two birds flushed from under a sage brush about 5 feet from me. The were the color of a blue grouse and made a slight clucking sound as they flew away. They seemed a little big for a blue grouse, but not huge. As they flew away I noticed that their tails were fanned into a rounded shape with a light colored band at the tip of the tail feathers. I took two more steps and two more flushed. Then two more for a total of six birds. They all flew several hundred yards to the nearest trees. My initial thought was that they were sage grouse (which I'm not sure that I've ever seen). However, I just looked up a description of sage grouse and it says that they have a pointed tail, which these birds definitely did not. Do you think that blues or ruffled grouse would be hanging out in sage and oak brush? What do you guys think?


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## luv2fsh&hnt (Sep 22, 2007)

I have jumped alot of blues in sage areas. I have hunted sage alot and I have never had them cluck when flushed. Sharptails cluck when flushed but also have a pointed tail. Without photos it is hard to say.


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Did they look like this?
[attachment=0:1r51apz5]Bird Image.jpg[/attachment:1r51apz5]
My guess is you saw some ruffies. I've seen lot's of them in sagebrush and oak.


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## billybob (Oct 27, 2008)

Flushing birds out of sage brush with light colored tips on rounded tail feathers says blue grouse to me, for sure. I have busted lots of blues out of high mountain sage brush. Though you get lots of sage grouse in those type of areas, you would definitely notice a pointed tail feather that is checkered white and black through the bottom side of the tail feathers. I say, blue grouse. 
Ruffs are a possibility, from you description, they sound more like blues when it comes to your size description. Also, whenever I flush big blues, they cackle. Two years ago, I flushed one that cackled like a pheasant when it flushed.


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## cfarnwide (Sep 10, 2007)

Most likely Blue Grouse. I have a few spots that are scrub oak and sage meadows that they like to hang out in. The only other possibility I can think of is maybe hen turkey???


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

When you first mentioned the elevation and the scrub/aspen, I thought ruffies, but being in the sage, they had to have been blues. Especially if they were that size. Ruffies are noticeably smaller.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

jeff788 said:


> I As they flew away I noticed that *their tails were fanned into a rounded shape with a light colored band at the tip of the tail feathers*.


Definitely and ostrich. Definitely... o-||


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## blueshooter (Oct 10, 2009)

i'm going to agree with you Bax!


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## Ryfly (Sep 13, 2007)

Blues. Just to be sure I'll gladly go with you next week to see them in person.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I say blues. Ostriches don't make a clucking sound.


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## jeff788 (Aug 7, 2009)

So what are the legalities of hunting ostrich in Utah? J/K. After your comments I'm pretty sure they were blues. I just didn't expect to find blues in that type of terrain.


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## pkred (Jul 9, 2009)

Is it me or does that Ostritch have a hemroid?


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

pkred said:


> Is it me or does that Ostritch have a hemroid?


LOL. Thats probably why those birds are so angry all the time!


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