Bonasia bonasia

The Hazel Grouse, also known as the Hazel Grouse in English, has 12 subspecies. It lives in Northeast China. In Manchu, it is called "Feiye Lenggu", which means "chicken on the tree". Later, it was called "Flying Dragon" based on its homonym.

Hazel grouse is a forest-dwelling bird. It does not flock during the breeding season, but mostly moves in small groups in other seasons, with 3-4 or 6-7 in a group, and sometimes more than 10. Generally, they start foraging at dawn. When foraging, the grouse disperses and looks for food separately, keeping a certain distance from each other, and occasionally makes "gi-gi-gi" calls to communicate with each other. Usually, it hides in the branches of pine trees. Sometimes, when people come near, it still does not move. It walks slowly in the bushes under the forest. When frightened, it can run quickly, take off after a few steps, and sometimes take off directly. When flying, its wings flap loudly and fly quickly. It usually lands on the low branches of the tree after flying 2-3 meters, and takes off again when people approach. When frightened, it often clings to the branches or hides in the branches. In winter after heavy snow, it spends more time on the trees, but does not roost on the trees, but spends the night in the snow nests on the ground. The daily activity time is closely related to the length of sunrise and sunset. In winter, it is mostly active on both sides of the river and in the mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests, and spends the night in the snow cover on the ground. In other seasons, it often moves in the pine forests and young stinking pine forests with ferns and dense bushes on the ground. When food is scarce in winter, the range of activities is generally expanded accordingly. The call is high and sharp, with the same tone, especially in the breeding season when the call is most frequent.

The main food of the Hazel Grouse is the tender branches, buds, fruits and seeds of plants. More than 30 kinds of plants and more than 10 kinds of animals have been recorded. It is particularly fond of pine nuts, hazelnuts, acorns, buds, tender tips and inflorescences of willows and birches, as well as fruits and seeds of various vines and herbs, such as bilberry, goat milk, and blackberry. Black bean trees, wild cherries, wild roses, tooth knots, strawberries, etc. are all its favorite foods. The food varies with the season. In spring and summer, the green parts of plants are the main food; in winter, the basic food is branches and a small amount of catkins, and sometimes mosses parasitic on trees are also eaten. Sometimes it also eats some Lepidoptera insects, snails, ants and their eggs. In late autumn, winter and early spring, when the ground is covered with snow, it almost entirely forages in trees. To adapt to this, its claws have pectinate edges that can grasp slippery branches, which is the result of long-term adaptation to the ice and snow environment.

The hazel grouse has a clear boorr boorr wingbeat. The show-off call is a long sucking sound tseeuu-eee tititi. The alarm is a fast pyittitttittt-ett-ett sound. During the breeding period, it calls frequently and mostly in pairs, especially in the early morning. The call is high and sharp. The male bird calls "chi chi chi, chi chi, chi chi", and the female bird calls "chi chi chi chi, chi chi".

The hazel grouse is mainly monogamous with one male and one female, but there is also a tendency for polygamy. During the breeding season, they are very secretive and rarely active. They mate in late April or May. During the breeding season, the estrus posture is similar to that of other grouse birds. The male bird spreads its tail like a fan, its wings droop, and its crest rises. When running on the ground, its wings keep paddling, often leaving shallow grooves on the ground. It is relatively quiet at the beginning of estrus. After the nesting areas are basically occupied, male birds often fight with each other to prevent other male birds from entering their nesting areas. Female birds do not participate in the fight, and they can freely find food in any nesting area. During estrus, male and female birds are inseparable and call each other. At this time, the female bird is more alert; if there is a slight noise, it will fly away alone, and then call each other again after it is quiet, usually the male bird flies to the female bird.

After mating, the hazel grouse starts to build nests. The nests are built in the forest on the sunny side of the hillside, beside fallen trees or tree roots on the ground, or hidden in the forest with more undergrowth and messy forest appearance. The nest is extremely simple and concave. It is in a depression surrounded by many trees. The nest material is dead branches and fallen leaves, and the inside is covered with thin dry branches, pine needles, and hay. The size of the nest is 17×19 cm and the depth is 4.5-5 cm. The eggs are smooth and shiny, light brown in color, with sparse reddish-brown spots. The first-laid eggs are lighter in color, and darker after a few days. The incubation period is about 25 days. The female bird is responsible for incubating the eggs. It never leaves the nest easily when incubating eggs. It leaves the nest 1-2 times a day, mostly at 3-5 in the morning and 18:00-19:30 in the evening. The chicks can walk as soon as their down feathers dry, can forage independently after a few days, and can take off after three weeks.

The hazel grouse is the most widely distributed and common species among the grouse birds. However, since the 1930s, its habitat has been shrinking and fragmented into discontinuous islands or strips. The populations living in various European countries have declined to varying degrees, and some places have become extinct. Because of its fragrant and delicious meat, it has become the main hunting bird in the Northeast. Since the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it has been used as a tribute bird and presented to the emperor as a delicious dish. It was hunted as a medicinal ingredient. Traditional Chinese medicine theory believes that the hazel grouse should be removed and the meat should be kept for use to nourish the kidneys and strengthen the yang. Therefore, it was exploited and over-hunted. Due to deforestation and over-hunting, the density of hazel grouse in Changbai Mountain dropped by 84% from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. The density of several major production areas of Hazel Grouse is not high, with 0.08-0.22 per hectare in the Greater Khingan Range, 0.10-0.17 per hectare in the Lesser Khingan Range, 0.08-0.19 per hectare in Changbai Mountain, and even fewer in the northernmost part of Xinjiang. Hazel Grouse in Liaoning, northern Tianjin, and Xinglong, Hebei are already or are on the verge of extinction. Raptors such as long-tailed forest owls and goshawks and some mustelids are the main natural enemies of Hazel Grouse. The coniferous environment in the Hazel Grouse habitat in Changbai Mountain, which can avoid natural enemies, has become extremely rare due to deforestation, so it is greatly threatened by natural enemies.

Listed in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2016 ver 3.1-Least Concern (LC).

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021) Level 2.

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Distributed in Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, North Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mongolia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine.
China's distribution in Wuying, Dailing, Shangganling in Heilongjiang Province in the north of Northeast China, Yimianpo in Jilin in the middle of Northeast China, Caohekou in Liaoning in the south, etc. (resident bird); occasionally distributed in Xinglong County, Hebei, Xinlin, Ituri River, Daheigou, Honghuaerji and Genhe in Daxing'anling, and Fuhai and Xierjin in northern Xinjiang, etc. (resident bird).
Most of them live in coniferous forests such as red pine, fir, spruce, and broad-leaved forests or mixed forests with lush vegetation and abundant berries, such as

The male bird's nostrils are covered with black feathers, mixed with a small amount of light yellow; the forehead is white, with black feathers on the rear edge; the top of the head is brown, mixed with inconspicuous brown spots, and has a crest; the back neck and upper back are brown. It has chestnut brown thin horizontal spots, with narrow brown-gray edges on the feather ends: the cheeks are white; the upper feathers on the neck are extra long, the same color as the ear feathers, both are dark brown, and the lower part is white; the white on the forehead, cheeks and neck sides are connected front to back. It forms a conspicuous white longitudinal band; the lower back and upper tail coverts turn to brown-grey, the chestnut-brown horizontal spots become narrow and inconspicuous, and have slightly dark feather trunk lines. The central pair of tail feathers are brown, mixed with darker beetle-like spots, and have some vague chestnut brown and pale white horizontal spots juxtaposed.