Surely many of you remember the poems where the bourgeois is advised to enjoy the grouse meat, while there is such an opportunity. What kind of birds are these? Does their meat have such a high nutritional value?
Yes, grouse birds are appreciated all over the world precisely for the excellent palatability of their dietary meat. But in the forest they are very difficult to obtain, since their coloring almost completely merges with the tree bark and branches. However, you can notice them by noisy flight and whistling, which these birds communicate with each other.
Hazel grouse is a medium-sized bird, whose size is approximately equal to that of an average pigeon. Weight reaches about 500 g. The plumage is gray, dotted with tan and red and black. A slightly noticeable crest crowns the head, which is why hazel grouse birds have an interesting and unusual look.
In flight, this bird seems smoky, and a black stripe stands out at the edge of the tail. It is easy to distinguish between females and males: in the former, the throat is painted in dark color, on which a white spot is visible. All European grouse birds are much darker and smaller than their relatives, who live in Siberia.
As a rule, they are found in spruce and mixed forests (with a predominance of conifers), and most often they can be found in river valleys and in clear glades. Oddly enough, in bare pine forests they almost never occur.
In general, this bird lives in almost all the forests of our country, with the exception of the lands of Kamchatka. It is believed that by autumn their population will increase to 30 million units, and in the taiga, about 20 individuals fall on 100 ha of forest.
By the nature of their birds, hazel grouse is a settled species, although if necessary they can easily make long flights. Although they are caused only by the depletion of the food supply in the forest.
The season of the year generally greatly affects their nutrition. In winter and autumn, they eat alder and birch “earrings”, snacking on buds, and in summer they switch to insects and their larvae without disdaining cereal seeds and herbs when they are in a state of milk ripeness.
In the fall, they stray into small flocks of 5-10 birds, but often keep in pairs. If the birds find the berry, they settle on the nearest trees, eating out all the supplies of blueberries, lingonberries and cranberries. Siberians know that in winter they constantly winter in snowdrifts, spending daytime on the branches of spruce and pine trees.
As for the nesting, the hazel grouse is a rather “negligent” bird, as they nest directly on the ground, often without bothering themselves with long arrangements for its arrangement.
They are known to hunters for their extremely cautious behavior. But if you frighten them away, then the noise of the flight will not make a mistake. This is due to the fact that during the flight they very often flap their wings, periodically switching to planning.
In autumn and spring, you can often hear their very long whistle, which we have already mentioned above. The current of these birds begins in the spring, and there is no exact date: they begin such an important event only after the sunny and warm weather sets in. Thus, the hazel grouse bird (whose photo is in the article) can serve as an excellent “barometer” indicating good weather.
