Being from Ohio I've never seen one in the wild, only in pictures. My son and I just got back from a trip to the Boundary Waters and we had a cool experience with them. There were 2 males and 6 females hanging around our camp when we got up one morning.
They seemed to be just as curious about us as we were of them. Anybody have experience with them? Does that sound like normal behavior? As best as we could guess is that seeing we were in an isolated area maybe they just don't have a natural fear of people?
Here are a few pics....

They were just waiting for you to make breakfast.

See them a lot in Alaska and western Canada. Most guys say they taste horrible but I've enjoyed many of them on archery hunts. I always carried a couple arrows with bird points. Like most grouse, if they jump up on a limb they think they are completely safe, but for some of them that is their last flight.

Beautiful birds.

Pete

Now those are some nice shots! -Super cool birds.

Their nickname is "foolhen".They will sit on a low branch and can be snared easily with a piece of thin wire on the end of a pole.Many have been taken with catapults or just a thrown rock.
They are very good eating.Slightly darker meat than a ruffed,but some prefer the young spruce grouse to the ruffed.They are plentiful here and not uncommon to see 40 or 50 in a day in the bush,in flocks.
I harvest a couple dozen or so each fall to eat.

Yup, they are not very intelligent or wary.

Cool looking birds but they are dumb, I shot some in Canada and tried to get some to fly and they wouldn't.

I can see where the nickname foolhen would come into play with them... they are cool looking bird though I have to admit.

Mostly ruffies around here but we get a few spruce hens now and then, me I always like them both and never found them bad eating unless they have been eating spruce buds then it can be like eating a pine tree

I never pass one up ,I Arkansas them on the road edges or in the trees,they are not all dumb. I do like the Ruffs better ,The spruces are better than the Blues in my book.

We have them at our camp. They are not to bright.
They are protected in Michigan.
They are just fast enough that the dog can't catch them.
They will fly straight up in the tree and watch the dog.
Five minutes later they will be back down on the ground.

I have them here. Pretty birds. I had one stomping fluffing and coming at me on the four wheeler last year. I stopped and watched, the hen was watching too from a branch on my right not 2 feet from my eye. One time I wish I had a camera because I have never seen a male as well colored as that one.
The male ended up on the limb beside the female easily within reach and was steel peeping and preening at me when I finally drove on.

Osky

Excellent pictures, we have some here in the Adirondacks . never saw one when I had camera.

That male is doing it's display.... we are at 12=12 light the same as spring conditions.
If you find them eating clover they are good to go for eating, if budding in a balsam tree....bake up time will be like the Xmas tree has just come in the house.

One of 10 birds on the Birders Life list THEY WANT TICKEDOFF when they come to Manitoba to visit

Great pics.

I killed a few of them for camp lunch years ago on a moose-hunting trip to northern Ontario. I had heard the term "fools hen" prior to that hunt but never experienced "tame" grouse like that. I was, and still am, used to our PA grouse taking off like rockets and scaring the crap out of you. They told me to take a .22 to shoot them with. I took the shotgun and had a heck of a time trying to get them to flush. The guys in camp probably thought I was nuts.

Shoot them in the head with a .22 so as not to get BBs in the meat. I will eat one once in a while.

Here,if you get the poults just when the season opens,the meat is almost as pale as a ruffed and just as good eating.Good thing they are plentiful,since there isn't a lot of meat on the poults.
I like the darker adults also.For flavour as well as size,its hard to beat the sharptails.

How was your trip into the BWCA,..good time? Some beautiful country isn't it.

It absolutely is! We are already planning our next trip. It may take a few years before we get back but we'll definitely be going back.

Shot a few on this trip to Alaska. They are pretty dumb but they are fine eating.

When I did my trapping trip to Canada I killed 8 birds with 8 shots with my single shot 410. They never flew and actually one of the male birds actually became a bit aggressive and got all puffed up and came toward me. I had to kill It In self defense. LOL
But I's rather eat ruffies.