The cock is very distinctive, with all-black plumage, apart from red eyebrows, and a long, deeply forked tail.

The Caucasian grouse is a sedentary species, breeding in the Caucasus and Pontic Mountains of northeast Turkey and Iran on open slopes with low Rhododendron or other scrubs but in proximity to deciduous broad-leaf forest.

Unlike the male Eurasian black grouse, the Caucasian grouse display is almost mute but for a thin whistling of the cock fluttering his wings as he leaps and turns in the air, producing a flash of white as the underwing feathers are briefly revealed.

[2] The hen lays up to ten eggs in a ground scrape and takes all responsibility for nesting and caring for the chicks, as is typical with gamebirds.

[1][3] Recent research shows that it is declining to some extent, and it is consequently listed as a Near Threatened species in 2008[4] with an estimated population of 30,203–63,034 worldwide in 2010.