Do all North American grouse taste about the

...same?

Paratroop kid got a spruce grouse up in Alaska. I've seen one in the Rocky Mountains but have never ate one. The only grouse I've ate are sharpetails and prairie chickens. Do most North American grouse taste about the same for those of you who have ate at least 2 different species?

To me, ruffed grouse taste the best. I've had spruce grouse and ruffed grouse.

Ruffled grouse is a excellent tasting bird!

Nope. Ruffled are good Sharptails are also. Sage grouse is kinda rough. My opinion

IMHO ruffed grouse are nothing like sharp tails or prairie chickens. To me they are better than pheasants or the chicken you buy in the store. Spruce grouse tend to be pretty gamey

My thoughts also

I eat ruffed grouse, Sharptail grouse, and spruce grouse every Fall/Winter.

Ruffed grouse tastes the best. Sharptail is second, and Spruce grouse is third.

Ruffed is white meat.

Sharptail is kinda in the middle between white and dark meat.

Spruce is dark meat.

I don’t have a problem eating either one.

After a couple months of eating needles a spruce grouse can be pretty strong.

And at -50 they are the size of a basketball : )

No mention of ptarmigan??

The kid said his grouse was eating berries. It still had a berry in its mouth.

By the way, this is the kid's black bear he took last Sunday up a mountain a ways. He was a pretty tired pup by the time he humped out what he had to plus the back straps and some fat. That hump out would have killed me...

P.S. The pistol photo is just for scale

I've eaten ptarmigan, ruffed grouse, Sharptail grouse, and spruce grouse , all are top choice eating.
I never paid that much attention to which was better eating.

I eat all grouse over charcoal and grilled medium. Some salt, pepper, onion, with the occasional jalapeño and you’ve got finger licking table fare.

I have eaten spruce, ruffed, blue, and sharptailed grouse. Also, one YOY sage grouse. I enjoyed all of them, but any spruce grouse other than YOY you will probably want to season quite extensively!

The only time I had two species at the same time was blues and ruffed, there was a difference, and I preferred the blues.

What do you all have in the Bighorns? I saw a grouse there, was that a blue or a spruce or are both in the Bighorns?

Depends on what time of year you eat them.
YOY spruce grouse in the fall are the best.
We have 3 here ruffed spruce and sharptail.
Sharptails are good late into march,spruce and ruffed not much good that late.

All I've had was prairie chicken. IDK that they are as good as quail but I love them in the pasture or on the plate

Blues are the best imo, white meat, and very plump and meaty.
Spruce grouse and ptarmigan have dark breast meat.

Ruffed grouse are great eating.

The others are barely edible.

I've only had ruffed and spruce. Ruffed are the best eating wild game, spruce are inedible in my opinion, they eat spruce needles and taste like it.

Reminiscent of turpentine as one gal put it. They're a protected bird here but one occasionally falls during the heat of battle. I prefer eating grouse to all other birds.

I've eaten blue, sage, sharptail & greater prairie chicken. Of those 4, blue grouse are easily the best and it isn't close. Sage n sharp tail were easily the worst in fact challenging the worst duck I've tried. Greater chicken was ok.

Blue grouse are good enough that they rank up there with pheasant. Both are a step below quail (scaled or bobwhite).

For what its worth....

I have eaten about all of the N.A. grouse species at one time or another, and Ruffed are, in my opinion, about the best eating of the bunch. Blue/Sooty next, followed by Sharptails and then Ptarmigan. Spruce/Franklin's are near the same as Ptarmigan if shot early, but they can get stronger tasting later. Prairie Chickens are on the par with Sharptails in my book, and Sage Grouse last. Full disclosure.....the Sage Gr. I ate have only been from frozen whole specimens I took in to mount and fried up after being skinned months later. Also, I have never eaten either Rock or White-tailed ptarmigan.