- Tetrastes bonasia
Bonasa bonasia
Identification
35–40 cm (13¾-15¾ in)
- Grey upperparts
- Brown wings
- Chestnut flecked white underparts
Male: a short erectile crest and a white-bordered black throat.
Female: a shorter crest and lacks the black throat
Distribution
Scandinavia, central and eastern Europe, Russia and Siberia to Japan and northern Korea.
Taxonomy
Formerly placed in genus Bonasa by some authorities.
Subspecies
Twelve subspecies are recognized[1]:
- T. b. styriacus: Jura Mountains, Alps, Hungary, Slovakia and southern Poland
- T. b. rhenanus: North East France, Luxembourg, Belgium and West Germany
- T. b. rupestris: South Germany, Bohemia and Sudety Mountains
- T. b. schiebeli: Balkan Peninsula
- T. b. volgensis: Poland and Ukraine to central European Russia
- T. b. bonasia: South Scandinavia, Finland and northern European Russia to Ural Mountains
- T. b. griseonota: North Sweden
- T. b. sibiricus: Siberia to Altai Mountains, Sayan Mountains and northern Mongolia
- T. b. kolymensis: Extreme eastern Siberia to Sea of Okhotsk
- T. b. amurensis: South Amurland and Little Khingan Mountains to northern Korea
- T. b. yamashinai: Sakhalin (Russia)
- T. b. vicinitas: Hokkaido (northern Japan)
Habitat
Dense, damp, mixed coniferous deciduous woodland, preferably with some spruce.
Behaviour
Breeding
The clutch consists of 3-6 eggs, which are laid in a ground nest. The female alone incubates the eggs and cares for the chicks.
Diet
They have a mainly vegetarian diet, supplemented by insects when breeding. During hard winter weather, they eat catkins, bugs and twigs of various trees and shrubs such as alder, birch, hazel and aspen.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Oct 2017)
- ZipcodeZoo
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Hazel Grouse. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Hazel_Grouse
External Links
Search for scientific name Bonasa bonasia:
Search for scientific name Tetrastes bonasia:
