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Has anyone ever came across a hybrid species of gamebirds in your years of hunting? The reason I ask, is that this year while I was out hunting, I shot what I thought was a immature Ruffed grouse. However, when I dressed it, to my surprise, it was dark meat like that of the Franklin or Spruce grouse. To me, it didn’t appear to be a female Spruce grouse, as they typically will have a small pink band above their eyes. So it got me to thinking about possible cross breed birds.

I did a Google search and found a discussion that had came up back in 2016. http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?131913-Do-Grouse-Cross-Breed

This got me more interested and with further searching, I found that there have been cases of hybrid gamebird species discovered in the past. https://allbirdsoftheworld.fandom.com/wiki/Gamebird_hybrids#Pheasant_and_Grouse_hybrids
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) and Spruce Grouse (Canachites canadensis), Dusky or Blue Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and Sharp-tailed grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus) at Osoyoos, British Columbia, 1906 (Dr. John W. Aldrich), now those are interesting cross breeds!

TC

Here in AZ you come across a scrambled quail once and awhile. A mix between a Scaled quail and a Gambels quail.

In North America, one of the most common wild hybrids results from mallard/pintail breeding. Mallards also commonly crossbreed with black ducks, wigeon, shovelers, cinnamon teal, green-winged teal, and gadwalls. Wood ducks also will cross breed with a number of other species. Snow geese will cross with Specks, a real weird looking one. I have seen maybe a dozen cross breeds in total, maybe a few more that at the time I did not realize were crosses. Sometimes with juvenile birds it is not that easy to tell. Love know few limits for a mallard. They will jump everything including a traffic cone given a chance.

I've seen lots of duck hybrids over the years but nothing of upland variety,

Spruce grouse hen ,no doubt

I think wherever lekking areas overlap you get sharptail/prairie chicken hybrids.

You do indeed. Also, as noted a few posts above, crosses between blues and bobs, resulting in blobs. Gotta love the name!

Quite a few years back, when I was guiding pheasant hunters in Iowa, I shot the oddest looking rooster I ever saw in the wild. The bird had white wings and a short, white tail. I yelled for my guys to shoot, but apparently they didn't think it was a rooster. I might not have either if I hadn't seen the red eye patch. You'll sometimes see birds like that on preserves, where they've released some albino pheasants and you end up with a cross. But that particular farm wasn't anywhere near a preserve. And by that time, I'd been hunting it for maybe 10 years and had never seen any pheasants that didn't look like you'd expect them to look.

Mallard drakes will breed with many other species of ducks resulting in weird looking crosses. Sometimes the resulting coloration and shape make it possible to identify the parents, sometimes not. I even know of a cross between a woodie and a mallard, and mallards have crossed with teal as well.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/hunting/duck-hybrids/

Looks like a spruce grouse to me.

There are crosses between Meriums and Eastern turkeys in NW Montana. Shoot them quite regularily.

Patrick shot a Mearns crossed with a Scalie a couple of years ago, plumage was distinctly different than either but well shot and not salvageable. We do have photos.
We shot several Scrambles on Borderbills ranch over the years, fairly common on that range/elevation.

A time or two I’ve seen what we call Blobs—crosses between blues (scaled quail) and bobs.

Have shot at least one mourning/Eurasian dove near Yuma, confirmed by game warden.