Birdpass
English
Hazel Grouse

Hazel Grouse

Tetrastes bonasia

Identify the Hazel Grouse by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

The Hazel Grouse is a small, shy forest grouse of dense mixed and coniferous woods from central Europe across Siberia to Hokkaido. It is finely barred grey-brown with a short crest; males have a black, white-bordered throat. It keeps to thick cover and is usually detected by its thin, high whistled song or the whirr of its wings when flushed.

Did you know?

  • Travellers in Russia once called it the “rabchick”.
  • In winter it lives largely on birch and alder catkins.

Voice

Call

About the species

Identification

A small forest grouse with a grey-mottled back, a brown-mottled breast and a grey tail with a black band near the tip. The male has a black throat bordered with white; the female's throat is pale and mottled. A small crest may be visible. It takes off with a clear whirr of wings, and its call is a high, thin whistle.

Family

Phasianidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

brown, grey, white, black

About the habitat

Dense spruce-dominated forest mixed with birch, alder or aspen, with rich undergrowth, often along streams and in damp gullies.

Diet

Buds, catkins and leaves of birch, alder and hazel, and berries such as bilberry and lingonberry; chicks feed mainly on insects.

Behaviour

Shy and cryptic, it keeps to dense undergrowth, often freezing until flushed with a sudden whirr of wings. It lives in pairs or small family groups and is sedentary. Males advertise territories with a high, thin whistled song, which hunters traditionally imitate with whistles. It nests on the ground, and the female raises the brood alone.

Sources

Photo: (c) Ilkka Tuunainen, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hazel Grouse imported from iNaturalist photo 116195913 on 11 June 2024.jpg

Sound: Alexander Kurthy, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetrastes_bonasia_-_Hazel_Grouse_XC103672.mp3

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_grouse

See also