Tetrao urogallus

The grouse is called Western Capercaillie in foreign language. It has 12 subspecies. It is a large grouse that lives in forest areas. It is the same size as a turkey.

Grouse rarely fly except when they go up and down trees. Due to their clumsy bodies, they flap their wings violently when they take off, making a ge-ge-ge sound, while female chickens make a gua-gua-gua sound. When flying, they rise slowly, and after reaching a certain height, they spread their wings and glide from high to low, but never fly above the canopy. When gliding, it can flexibly change direction to adapt to the change of mountain slope and to facilitate passing through the open space in the forest. When landing, it flaps its wings again to balance its body, usually landing on a tree, and then observes the surroundings and flies to the ground when it is sure there is no danger. It mainly feeds on plant food and has a wide diet. In the warm season, it can eat more than 160 kinds of food.

The mating type of grouse is one male and many females, without pairing. Female birds are selective about male birds before mating and leave the courtship field after mating. Male birds also fight fiercely to compete for female birds and territory. The fighting male birds face each other and are very close. The head is very low to the ground, the neck feathers are raised, the tail is raised high, and they peck each other with their beaks.

Male birds perform sexual performances in a fixed mating ground (English: lek) from April to May every year. The mating ground is a large clearing on the edge of a forest dominated by larch trees, and the performances are mainly performed in the morning and evening. The male birds in the mating ground keep a certain distance, about 50-100 meters. Due to the complex terrain, it is difficult for male birds to see each other when performing sexual performances in their respective territories, but they can hear each other's courtship calls. The female chickens come to the mating ground after the male chickens start their performances. The peak period of male bird performances is from morning to noon, but mainly in the morning. Single or several female birds first fly from the mating ground to the larch tree in the courting ground and look around. After about 10 minutes, they fly to a tree in the territory of a male bird and land near the male bird a few minutes later. The arrival of the female bird stimulates the male bird to increase its performance activities. At this time, the male bird often chooses the most open raised area in the territory to move around, trying to attract the attention of the female bird. When the male bird sees the female bird land, it immediately runs to her, with its wings slightly spread and drooping, its flight feathers almost touching the ground and shaking constantly, its tail feathers vertically erected in a fan-like shape, and the white spots under the tail feathers can be seen from behind. Its neck is vertically erected and swings back and forth, and it makes continuous courtship calls. Then it basically keeps this posture and circles around the female bird. At this time, the female bird's feathers are slightly puffed up, its wings are slightly spread and drooping, its legs are slightly bent and squatting, and it keeps turning its neck to watch the circling male bird. While circling, the male bird and the female bird leave the open area and mate in a more secluded area such as a bush or a pile of fallen wood. The male bird steps on the female bird's back from the back and bites the feathers on the back of the neck with its beak to mate. After mating, it flies away immediately. After choosing a mate in this way, the female bird begins to build a nest and lay eggs.

The newly hatched chicks are covered with down feathers. The down feathers of the chicks are yellowish brown, with a large "V"-shaped black stripe on the forehead, and black and reddish brown spots on the head, neck and back, especially on the head. The upper beak is covered with wax film, and the feet are flesh-yellow. The average measurement is 6 mm at the beak, 28 mm in wing length, 22 mm in tarsus length, and 36.6 grams in weight. Soon after hatching, the chicks can follow their parents to forage for food. After about a month, they can fly to large trees to roost. In autumn, grouse gather into groups of more than a dozen to move and forage together.

Although the common grouse has a large distribution range in the world, the population is declining everywhere. In the UK, the number has declined sharply since the mid-1970s, and in Germany and Central European countries, it has become extinct or on the verge of extinction in many places. In China, the grouse was first discovered by Chinese scholars in 1975 in the far north of Xinjiang, near the Khanas Lake in Burqin County and the northern mountains of Habahe County. Its traces were also seen in the Altai Mountains in Altay, Fuyun, Fuhai and other counties, but the population is extremely rare. The species is estimated to be declining due to habitat destruction and modification. The species has experienced considerable range contraction in the east and west of its range, leading to local extinction (Madge and McGowan 2002). As of 2015, the number of grouse is estimated to be increasing in Europe.

Listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 ver3.1 - Least Concern (LC).

Listed in the second level of the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China".

Protect wild animals and eliminate game.

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Resident birds: Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia (Central Asia and Europe), Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Breeding places: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Russia (East Asia) and Serbia.
Extinct: Ireland; Restored and introduced: Britain; Wandering: Denmark.
The distribution range of grouse in the world is very large, from the Scandinavian Peninsula in northern Europe, south to the Alps and the Balkan Peninsula; east to Western Siberia, Central Asia, northwestern Mongolia and the Altai Mountains in northern Xinjiang, China. With different geographical environments, there are 12 subspecies, of which the Altai subspecies is distributed in China, which is only distributed in the counties of Altay, Fuyun, Burqin, Fuhai and Habahe in Xinjiang.
Grouse

The male grouse is slate gray from the forehead to the upper tail coverts, and the head is darker in color with black insect-like spots or cloud-like spots on it. The throat is black, the chest has a blue-green sheen, and the abdomen has white spots. The tail is long and broad, with some white spots, and a wide irregular white spot on the central tail feathers. The upper body of the female bird is rusty brown, mixed with black and yellow horizontal spots, the lower body is lighter, the throat is light yellow or orange, the chest is brown, the abdomen and both flanks are light white, densely covered with yellow-brown horizontal spots. The iris is brown, the corners of the mouth are yellow or white, and the tarsometatarsal feathers are feathered to the toes.
Size measurement: weight ♂3600-5050g, ♀1700-1920g; body length 670-950 mm; wings ♂373-422 mm, ♀307-315 mm. (Note: ♂Male; ♀Female)