The Sharp-tailed Grouse is a member of the family Phasianidae in the Order Galliformes, which includes other chicken-like birds such as quail, pheasants, peacocks and domestic chickens. Originally it had a much larger range, reduced now to from Canada and Alaska to midwestern boundary states and further south in the Rockies, but the southernmost of 7 subspecies in New Mexico, was extirpated when Europeans settled. They also hunted the species to extinction from the former range that included California, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, and New Mexico.