# Grouse vs hen



## mnswd

Last fall I had a hard time ID'ing a sharpie vs a hen. Does anyone have any educational material to help in this area.


----------



## KEN W

The easiest way to tell is that sharps always cackle when they get up.


----------



## Field Hunter

They cackle,
They Fly differently....cupped wings and usually lower.
They look different.

If you don't know make sure you don't shoot....every hen killed is that many fewer pheasants the next year.

After you get a years worth of flushes you shouldn't have any trouble at all.


----------



## always_outdoors

My dad says a grouse will laugh at you when it flies away. Hens won't.


----------



## Dick Monson

Pheasants have no white feathers, grouse have a white breast, pheasants have a steady wing beat, grouse flap and glide, sort of a waffel flight. And like the guys said grouse usually cluck like a chicken, where as hens make a peeping noise. (Roosters however cluck exactly like a chicken when they walk).


----------



## always_outdoors

Now to really mess with your mind.

When you clean a grouse, it has a dark breast whereas a pheasant will have a white breast. :lol: :biggrin:

For the first time in my life I had grouse get up and not "laugh" at me when flying away. I did not shoot thinking it was a hen only realizing after out of range it was truely a grouse.


----------



## Dick Monson

> I did not shoot thinking it was a hen only realizing after out of range it was truely a grouse.


 I am looking forward to hunting with you L2H.


----------



## always_outdoors

Dick: Can't wait for day in the field with you either. I missed the weekend with you and Ken W. Hopefully it will work this year.

No hen shooting from this guy.


----------



## mburgess

I wouldn't call the grouse sound a cackle. Rooster pheasants cackle when they get flushed. I would call a sharptail sound more of a chuckle or a chucka-chucka-chucka sound. It takes awhile to distinguish between them, but once you can tell by their flight pattern and chuckle sound it is a breeze. Later in the season hen pheasants have cosiderably longer tails than a grouse as well.


----------



## swift

the best way to tell in the hand is grouse will have feathers on their feet. Young pheasants will not. I look for the white on the bird as it flies away like stated above.


----------



## gonehuntin'

Sharpies go cuck, cuck, cuck when they flush and have pointed tails. Listen and look at the tails.


----------



## njsimonson

Eh, I'd say that grouse "gurgle" (kinda like glug-glug-glug) when they get up.

You can also tell by the bird's profile. Look for the short pointy butt. They don't call 'em sharptails for nothing!


----------



## Goon

Thought it was more of a squeek. I saw three of them in Medora last weekend in Theordore Rosevelt National Park in Medora.


----------



## upland420

Goon said:


> Thought it was more of a squeek. I saw three of them in Medora last weekend in Theordore Rosevelt National Park in Medora.


If you heard more of a squeek or screeching sound during flight then what you saw and heard were partridge. Sharpies do not make that type of sound.


----------



## Goon

http://birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=123

What ever sound this is, is what they were making. 
If you listen to the recording they do a squeek or what ever it is.


----------



## upland420

The sounds discussed here were those made during the flush...the sounds you are talking about are more like mating or nesting type communication. They sound NOTHING like that when the flush/fly.


----------



## Goon

That might very well be, the bird I saw in the park two weekends ago was a Sharpie, I know the difference between a Hun and a Sharpie. Sharpies are quite a bit bigger than Huns'. The area around the park in the legal hunting areas is crawling with Sharpies. I was out there deer hunting last fall and I saw hundreds of them. I flushed at least 30 in on thicket in the grasslands.


----------



## stevepike

Most posts right on.

Look like a football.
White while in flight.
Frequently (not always) Put-Put-Put

When in doubt, don't shoot.


----------



## Dick Monson

[siteimg]4902[/siteimg]
Hen pheasant on the rise. Grouse would have distinctive white tail feathers with a shorter tail. The feathers on the body would be darker with a mottled appearance.


----------



## mnswd

Great Pic


----------

