Tetrao parvirostris

The beaks, feet and toes of both male and female birds are black, and the irises are cinnamon, but the plumage is quite different. The plumage of the male bird is dark brown, with a metallic purplish luster on the head and neck, a green luster on the chest, and large white spots on the shoulders and wings. The black tail feathers are wedge-shaped, with a white edge at the end, which is very distinctive. The feathers of the female bird are mostly rusty brown, with dark brown horizontal stripes and gray-white feather edges, and flashing blue luster. Both male and female chickens have white terminal spots on the upper and lower coverts of the shoulders, wings, lower abdomen and tail.
The body shape is similar to that of a domestic chicken. The male has a purplish glitter on the head and neck. The shoulders, primary flight feathers, and some coverts on the wings and tail are bright white at the tips; the tail is long and slightly shorter than the wing length, and has a wedge-shaped appe

Distributed in China, Mongolia and the Russian Federation, found from eastern Siberia to Sakhalin Island. China has only the nominate subspecies, which is distributed in larch and pine forests at an altitude of 300-1000 meters in the Greater Khingan Range, Lesser Khingan Range and Changbai Mountain Area in the northeast. Wandering birds can reach the borders of Liaoning and Hebei.
The black-billed grouse is a typical coniferous forest bird, mostly active in the forest clearings, forest edges and river valleys of coniferous forests such as larch, fir, spruce, Scots pine and Korean pine in low mountains and hills at an altitude of about 500 meters, especially in areas with good understory herbs, young trees and shrubs, but does not like particularly dense woodlands, nor in broad-leaved forests.

The black-billed grouse is called Black-billed Capercaillie in foreign language, and there are 3 subspecies.

The activities and foraging of black-billed grouse are all during the day, starting at dawn and not stopping until dusk. They are good at walking on the ground, and generally seldom fly except for climbing and descending trees. When taking off, they first go to a relatively open place, flap their wings vigorously, and fly up in an oblique line, often making a loud flapping sound. The male bird calls "Ga-Ga-", and the female bird calls "Gua-Gua-". When they fly to a certain height, they glide down obliquely, bend their wings downward, change directions flexibly, or flap their wings again to fly upward. Usually the flight distance is not long, mostly within 200 meters, and the flight height is not high, generally not exceeding the crown of a large tree. Before landing, most of them first land on a tree, carefully observe the movements on the ground, and land only when they think there is no danger. When encountering danger, they usually stand still and observe calmly, and only take off when the danger is approaching, or hide in dense bushes, piles of dead leaves or fallen wood. At night, they usually roost on larch trees, and only during the brooding period do they roost in the grass or bushes on the ground with the chicks. In addition, in the severe winter, heavy snow and howling north winds also force them to hide in snow nests on the ground for the night.

Black-billed grouse mostly feed on trees, and sometimes on the ground. The food is mainly the tender branches, buds, fruits and seeds of plants. More than 60 species have been recorded, including birch, willow, linden, poplar, larch, Korean pine, Dahurian larch and other trees. They also like honeysuckle, willow herb, rock orchid, Dahurian rose, blueberry, tooth knot, strawberry and other shrubs. They also eat some lepidoptera insects, snails, ants and eggs. In contrast, although there are fewer types of food in winter, they are rich in nutrients, especially high-energy substances such as crude fat and sugar, which are helpful to help them survive the long and cold winter in the north.

March to April is the mating season for black-billed grouse. Often, 5 to 7 males and females gather in a courtship area on a sunny hillside with sparse tall trees and small shrubs to mate. In April, when grass buds begin to sprout, although the Greater Khingan Range is still cool, the roosters use the "bang bang" call to find the female chickens. If they find the target, they will immediately dance to propose. At this time, if another rooster also takes a fancy to the female chicken, the two roosters will show their dancing skills to please the female chicken. It is common to see several roosters dancing in a circle on the ground for a female chicken. At this time, the female chickens will also look carefully on the trees. If they take a fancy to one of them, they will fly down the tree and land next to the rooster, and then leave together.

After the courtship activity is over, the female bird begins to build a nest and lay eggs. The habitat for nesting is related to ecological factors such as the abundance of food, concealment, distance from water, forest type, slope and altitude. In early May, the female bird builds a nest with her feet, digging the ground into a concave shape, and then picks up some larch needles, a little bark, small pine branches and a small amount of feathers to pad the concave nest. The nest material is mainly pine needles.

The breeding season begins in May and June. The female chicken lays 6-10 eggs in a nest. The eggs are similar in size to goose eggs, and the color is light brown, ochre or light gray-brown, with yellow-brown and reddish-brown spots scattered on them. From nesting to egg laying and chick rearing, the female bird is responsible for it alone, and the incubation period is 23-25 days. The female chicken has a strong nest attachment phenomenon when incubating. She will not fly away even if someone approaches her. Sometimes she pretends to be injured to lure the intruder away, and then returns to the nest to continue incubating.

The newly hatched chicks have yellowish feathers with black-brown spots and flesh-red feet, just like small fluff balls. They are very lively and cute. Soon after hatching, they can follow their parents to find food, and a month later they can fly to big trees to roost. In autumn, black-billed grouse gather into groups of more than a dozen to move and forage together. The chicks grow rapidly and can fly to 3-4 meters high trees in more than half a month.

The populations of black-billed grouse in the two main habitats in China, the Lesser Khingan Mountains and the Arxan region, are also on the verge of extinction, and no overwintering individuals can be seen in Hebei. Even in the Greater Khingan Range, where the population is the largest, the rate of decline is very fast. Due to the rare forest fire in history from May to June 1987, a large area of virgin forest was burned, and the total burned area reached 1.33 million square meters, causing the population density of black-billed grouse to drop sharply, and the situation is very serious. The breeding period of black-billed grouse is relatively early. In early May, the ice and snow in the Greater Khingan Range had just melted, and it had begun to build nests and lay eggs, but the hatching rate was very low. According to the survey, only 3 chicks were hatched out of 23 eggs in 3 nests. The fertilization of eggs was low, with only 3 fertilized eggs out of 16 eggs. The low hatching rate may be related to the low temperature during egg laying and incubation. It snowed from time to time, the surface had just melted, and the underground temperature below 5 cm was still not thawed, and the night temperature was low (-6 to -1℃). The continuous felling of forests, the destruction of the habitat on which it depends for survival, and indiscriminate hunting are the main factors that endanger it.

Listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016, ver 3.1 - Least Concern (LC).

Listed in China's National List of Key Protected Wildlife (February 5, 2021) Level 1.

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