Males have a longer tail, a purple throat patch and a yellow comb over the eye.

Its historical range extended from British Columbia south through eastern Washington and Oregon to Northeastern California, Nevada, and Utah, and then west to the Continental Divide.

[4] These populations are sequestered in central British Columbia, southeastern Idaho and northern Utah, and northwestern Colorado and south-central Wyoming.

[4] It was extirpated entirely from Oregon by the 1960s, but was reintroduced in Wallowa County beginning in 1991;[5] a small population of the birds now persists in the Leap Area of Zumwalt Prairie.

[6] The Columbian sharp-tailed grouse was petitioned to be listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act twice, but was denied in both cases.