The largest forest representative among birds is the capercaillie. It can rightfully be considered the king among forest birds. However, despite its external attractiveness, the wood grouse has a hard time in its native forests. The bird is rapidly becoming extinct due to hunting. Therefore, it is impossible not to talk about such a representative handsome man in more detail.

What kind of bird?

The wood grouse, or capercaillie bird, belongs to the pheasant family. It is also called the common capercaillie. This is a beautiful, very large representative of birds. The male can reach a weight of 6 kg. Females are much smaller than their companions, only 2 kg. But the differences between males and females do not end there.

Types of wood grouse

The capercaillie bird is divided into four species. These are dark taiga, black-bellied, white-bellied and stone representatives of the pheasant family.

The dark taiga lives in the north and northeast of the Russian Federation. The bird is very beautiful, black with a bluish tint. The dark taiga capercaillie also has light inclusions in the form of small spots. They are located on the sides of the wings and on the tail.

Black-bellied. Lives in the western forests of Russia.

The white-bellied species lives in the Urals. Its distinctive feature is the presence of white feathers in the belly area.

Stone. The description of the capercaillie bird, which belongs to the stone species, begins with the fact that it is significantly smaller than its relatives. The weight of the bird does not exceed 4.5 kg. And these are males. Females are even smaller, rarely weighing 2.2 kg. The habitat of this species is extensive. From Baikal to Kamchatka. You can find it in Primorye and Sakhalin. The male's color is black with brownish impurities. There are contrasting white spots on the shoulder blades, sides and wings.

A more detailed description of the capercaillie bird is below.

Description of the male

The king of the forest is the capercaillie bird. The male is a creature that weighs about 6 kg. Its wingspan reaches 125 cm. Its large body is covered with black feathers with an emerald tint. During the mating season, the flaunting suitor spreads a bushy tail. The wings are wide, their color is reddish and brown. The wood grouse's beak is not very long and rounded. A kind of beard grows under it - black feathers gathered in a bun. There are bright red patches of skin around the eyes. The bird's paws are powerful, with three fingers and blunt claws.

Description of the female

Representatives of pheasants are greatly inferior to males. Females have a short tail, yellowish-red plumage and a hooked beak. In addition, they are small - 2.5 kg maximum - and do not look very attractive, they look like chicken.

Bird habitat

They live in coniferous and coniferous-deciduous forests. If the capercaillie bird lives in a deciduous forest, then during wintering it will definitely go to where there are pine needles. The latter is the main diet of this bird. Typical places of comfortable living for wood grouse are pine forests or pine-spruce forests.

These birds are extremely cautious outside the mating season. In addition, they have good eyesight. In winter, wood grouse live in small flocks, hiding under the snow cover.

Nutrition

The capercaillie is a large bird, so it needs good nutrition. In summer, the birds' diet includes berries, insects, leaves, and plant seeds. In autumn, an aspen leaf is added to the main diet. In winter, the capercaillie switches to conifers. It can be fir or pine, and occasionally spruce. In winter, the bird begins to eat rowan and juniper, as well as pebbles for grinding solid food in the stomach.

Reproduction

The mating season of the capercaillie bird begins in early spring. When the snow has already settled, males increasingly begin to trace tracks on it with their wings. This is the first bell to mating games. As soon as the first thawed patches appear, females appear on the leks. Males fight fiercely for the ladies. Finally, the winner is determined, fertilization occurs, and the female capercaillie leaves the mating “platform.”

Concerns about breeding offspring and building a nest lie entirely with the females. A capercaillie nest is a depression in the ground lined with feathers, blades of grass and leaves. The female lays from 5 to 20 eggs. They are yellowish-white in color and the size of a chicken egg. The chicks incubation period is about 3 weeks. As soon as they hatch, the chicks are able to follow their mother independently.

Enemies of the wood grouse

First of all, it is a person. People have been hunting beautiful and large birds for a long time. Wood grouse meat is famous for its taste. So a man hunts him, not knowing the limits in his craft.

In the forest, the main enemies of representatives of the pheasant family are wolves and bears. The wild boar does not hesitate to cause damage to the “forest owner,” and foxes will be happy to check the capercaillie nest in the absence of the female.

What else can be said about these birds?

Wood grouse fly with great difficulty. Therefore, long-distance flights are not for them.

These birds look for food on the ground.

Females are more agile. This is due to the weight of the birds.

But the capercaillie is much more beautiful. It has bright plumage, while the female is plain.

Despite the fact that wood grouse can sit in trees, they choose the ground as a nesting site.

The diameter of the nest is 25 cm.

During the hatching period, the mother leaves the nest only in the early morning or late evening.

If the female notices danger, she leads hunters or predators away from the babies. Capercaillie, while very small, hide under their mother’s wing. While they are with their mother, the chicks learn to camouflage themselves in the grass and bushes.

The offspring are born in the summer. In autumn, young males separate from their mother. Later, the females also leave their native nest.

In winter, when there is severe frost, wood grouse may not leave their “holes” for days. If they go out, it’s only to eat.

Birds hide in the snow in a special way. They fall from the trees in clumps. First, the bravest wood grouse folds its wings, strongly stretches its neck and “dives” into a snowdrift. He is followed by less courageous representatives.

Especially about the current

Why was the bird called wood grouse? Because during the mating period the male becomes deaf. Literally. Flocking to the mating grounds, special marriage clearings, the gentlemen begin to convene the ladies. They do this with the help of a special song. First, the capercaillie makes strange clicks, and then begins to “hiss.” It's still a song, but the females like it. Wood grouse attract friends not only by singing. They stretch their necks slightly, spread their luxurious tails and spread their wings. Therefore, they make the most favorable impression on brides.

Fights between suitors occur for each female. Sometimes battles end in the death of the vanquished. The current begins early in the morning, but some males arrive at the treasured clearing the day before it begins.

Conclusion

The capercaillie is a very unusual bird. Both in his appearance and in his lifestyle. It is no coincidence that she is called the “king of the forest.” Unfortunately, due to unscrupulous hunters, the number of these birds is significantly declining every year. Yes, and diseases take their toll. It is because of hunting and disease that most of these luxurious forest inhabitants die. The article contains photos of the capercaillie bird and tells about its life.

The largest representative of upland game birds, the capercaillie, has long been considered a treasured trophy of the hunter. True, it is not difficult to shoot a lekking bird - in the frenzy of love, it loses all vigilance.

Description of the capercaillie

Tetrao Linnaeus is the name of a genus of birds classified as wood grouse.. It is part of the pheasant family and the Galliformes order, dividing in turn into 2 closely related species, consisting of 16 varieties.

Appearance

This is one of the largest gallinaceous birds and the most dimensional (against the background of black grouse, hazel grouse, woodcock and partridge) forest game bird. Male wood grouse grow up to 0.6–1.15 m with a weight of 2.7 to 7 kg (wingspan 0.9–1.25 m), females are usually lower and smaller - a little more than half a meter with a weight of 1. 7–2.3 kg.

The male has a powerful, curved (like a bird of prey) light beak and a long, rounded tail. The female (kopalukha) has a smaller and darker beak, the tail is rounded and lacks a notch. The beard (long feathering under the beak) grows only on males.

This is interesting! From a distance, the capercaillie appears monochrome, but up close it “breaks up” into its component colors: black (head and tail), streaky dark gray (body), brownish (wings), shiny dark green (chest) and bright red (eyebrow).

The belly and sides are usually dark, but some birds have white streaks on the sides. Subspecies T. u. uralensis, living in the Southern Urals and Western Siberia, is distinguished by white sides/belly with dark streaks. White edges run along the upper tail coverts, a prominent white patch is observed at the base of the wing, and white tips are found on the undertail feathers. In addition, a marbled whitish pattern is applied to the center of the tail feathers.

The capercaillie is characterized by variegated plumage with wide transverse streaks (ocher and white shades) and a red bib, which is absent in some individuals. The stone capercaillie is smaller than usual and does not grow more than 0.7 m with a weight of 3.5–4 kg. There is no specific hook on its beak, and its tail is somewhat longer. The male is predominantly black in color with white spots on the tail/wings, while the female is yellowish-red, supplemented by brown and black streaks.

Character and lifestyle

The capercaillie is a sedentary bird that makes rare seasonal migrations. It flies heavily, so it avoids long flights, moving from mountains to lowlands and back.

It feeds and spends the night in trees, periodically descending to the ground during the day. In summer he tries to stay close to berry patches, streams and anthills. Near reservoirs, wood grouse stock up on small stones, which help grind rough food (buds, leaves and shoots).

In winter, it spends the night in snowdrifts, getting there in the summer or from a tree: having advanced a little in the snow, the capercaillie hides and falls asleep. In severe cold and snowstorms, it sits in the snow (where it is 10 degrees warmer and there is no wind) for days. The shelter often turns into a crypt. This happens when a thaw gives way to frost and the snow freezes into an ice crust (crust), from under which birds usually cannot escape.

This is interesting! The capercaillie is silent, and shows eloquence exclusively in the current. The short current serenade lasts a few seconds, but is clearly divided into two parts.

The singer begins with dry double clicks, separated by small intervals, which quickly develop into a continuous clicking trill. The clicking sound, which sounds like “tk... tk... tk - tk - tk-tk-tk-tk-tk-tktktktktktktk”, continues without stopping into a second phase (3-4 sec), called “sharpening”, “grinding” or “scraping” "

It is during “sharpening” that the capercaillie stops responding to external stimuli, turning into an easy target. At all other times, the bird hears/sees perfectly and behaves extremely carefully. Having noticed the dog, the capercaillie “creaks” with displeasure and escapes from the person silently, but making a distinct noise with its wings.

It has been established that the frequency of their flapping exceeds the bird’s breathing frequency, that is, it simply must suffocate from lack of oxygen. But this does not happen thanks to the powerful respiratory system, consisting of lungs and 5 pairs of air sacs. An important nuance is that most of the air provides cooling during flight, and the smaller part is used for breathing.

How long do wood grouse live?

The average lifespan does not exceed 12 years, but there is information about males who have met their 13th birthday. In captivity, some specimens lived up to 18 years or more.

This is interesting! Wood grouse do not occupy the tree on which their relative was killed. No rational explanations have been found for this. Naturalists have noticed that capercaillie leks remain unchanged for centuries, as do “personal” trees, unofficially assigned to individual birds.

The strange thing is that the tree of a shot wood grouse is not claimed not only by witnesses of its death, but also by young males who annually replenish the lekking area. The fatal tree remains free for 5 or even 10 years.

Types of wood grouse

The genus Tetrao Linnaeus (following an earlier classification) included 12 species. Over time, wood grouse began to be divided into only 2 types:

• Tetrao urogallus – common capercaillie;
• Tetrao parvirostris – rock capercaillie.

As the birds settled in different corners, they acquired their own vocal characteristics.. Thus, wood grouse from Western Europe imitate the pop of a cork flying out of a bottle. The same sound is produced by wood grouse living in the Baltic states. Ornithologists call the “song” of the South Ural wood grouse classic.

Range, habitats

The Zoological Institute of Russia is convinced that the homeland of the capercaillie is the taiga of the Southern Urals (Beloretsky, Zilairsky, Uchalinsky and Burzyansky districts). Despite the catastrophic decline in the population, the range of the capercaillie is still wide and covers the north of the European continent, as well as Central/West Asia.

The bird is found in Finland, Sweden, Scotland, Germany, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia, Northern Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belarus and southwestern Ukraine. The common capercaillie inhabits the north of the European part of Russia, spreading to Western Siberia (inclusive). A second species, the rock capercaillie, also lives in Siberia, whose habitat coincides with the larch taiga zones.

Both species of wood grouse prefer mature tall-stemmed coniferous/mixed forests (less commonly, deciduous forests), avoiding young island forests with a small area. Favorite habitats include moss swamps in forest thickets, where many berries grow.

Diet of wood grouse

The most meager menu of wood grouse is in winter. In bitter frosts, he is content with pine and cedar needles, going out in search of food once a day (usually at noon). In the absence/deficiency of pine and cedar trees, birds switch to fir, juniper needles, shoots and buds of deciduous trees. With the onset of warmer weather, the capercaillie returns to its summer diet, which includes:

• blueberry stems;
• overwintered and ripening berries;
• seeds and flowers;
• grass and leaves;
• wood buds and shoots;
• invertebrates, including insects.

In mid-September, birds fly to the sands and yellowing larches, whose needles the capercaillie likes to feed on in the autumn.

Reproduction and offspring

Capercaillie current occurs in March – April. Males fly to the lek closer to dusk, deliberately making noise with their wings during landing. Usually from 2 to 10 “suitors” gather in one place, but in the remote thickets there are tokas (with an area of ​​1–1.5 km2), where dozens of applicants are sung.

However, they respect someone else’s personal space, not approaching their neighbor more than 150–500 m and starting mating before dawn. With the first rays of light, the singers descend to the ground and continue singing, occasionally interrupting to pose and jump with the noisy flapping of their wings. It happens that capercaillie meet at the line and start a fight, clinging to necks with their beaks and touching each other with their wings.

This is interesting! By the middle of the mating season, wood grouse arrive at the lek, preoccupied with building nests (in the grass, under bushes, and even in open space). The copalukha communicates its readiness for mating by squatting, doing this until the male condescends to copulate. The capercaillie is polygamous and is able to mate with two or three capercaillie in the morning.

Showing ends as soon as fresh foliage appears. The female sits on eggs (from 4 to 14), incubating them for about a month. The chicks are very independent and from the first day they feed themselves, first eating insects, and a little later berries and other vegetation. At the age of 8 days they are able to fly on branches no higher than 1 meter, and by a month they can already fly. Grown-up males begin mating at 2 years of age. Females begin parenting at the age of 3, as younger individuals are frivolous - they lose eggs or abandon their nests.

Capercaillie are members of the pheasant family, a subfamily of grouse. The bird owes its name to the fact that the male loses his vigilance and sensitivity during the mating season, which helps hunters catch the bird.

A spring capercaillie displays in a pine forest.

Geography of residence

Nowadays, wood grouse can only be found in coniferous and mixed forests of Europe and Northern Asia, and their largest population is in Siberia. Previously, wood grouse could be found on other continents, but now their population there is completely absent.

Appearance

A photo of wood grouse shows all the majesty and beauty of the bird. The size of males is about more than 1 meter, and weight varies from 4 to 6.5 kg, female capercaillie are significantly smaller, no more than 80 cm long, and weigh about 2 kg.

Sexual dimorphism of birds is expressed not only in size; the color of birds also varies significantly. The male's head plumage is black, the neck is ash and black-ash. There are no feathers around the eyes, and the skin is colored red, the beak is lighter - white-pink. The color of the back is black with gray and brown spots. The crop is black with a gray-green sheen, the chest is green. The wing plumage is brown, the tail is black with white spots.

Female wood grouse are very variegated in color - their feathers are red, yellow, black-brown and white. The feathers on the throat and wing folds are rusty red.

Nutrition and behavior

Capercaillie are omnivorous birds; in the spring and summer months, the basis of their diet is tree buds, small tree leaves, blades of grass, berries, seeds, and various insects. From October, larch needles become their main food, and in winter, capercaillie feed on needles and buds.

The favorite activity in life for these birds is mating. They mating at any time of the year, regardless of the mating season. Wood grouse fly extremely rarely; they mostly move on the ground; if a bird suddenly decides to fly, it will not rise higher than the trees.

Reproduction

Capercaillie do not create permanent pairs; several females can come to one male at once. The mating season begins in March, the birds gather at the mating grounds - from year to year they are located in the same place. After the end of the mating season in April, the female begins to arrange the nest; for this she finds a suitable hole, which she lines with twigs and leaves.

A clutch usually contains 5 - 8 eggs, in rare cases there can be up to 16 eggs. The eggs are yellow-gray with dark specks. Little wood grouse are born after 3.5 - 4 weeks, they are hatched only by the female, and only the mother is responsible for the safety of the newborns.

The photo shows that newborns do not have enough down to keep them warm, so the mother must take care of their warming. After the birth of the last chick, the female takes the babies to a safe place; for the first days they hide under her wings, but after a few days they are able to very cleverly camouflage themselves in the grass.

Two-week-old chicks are capable of flying short distances, and at 30 - 33 days they are not inferior in flight to their parents. At the end of summer, the grown male chicks leave their mother, and the females can still remain with her for a short time.

• In nature, there are crosses between wood grouse and black grouse; such birds are called “mezhnyak”; such birds do not produce offspring.
• In winter, birds hide in snow “dens”, emerging from them only for food, however, even in these dens they hear the approach of a predator or hunter.
• Only 20% of capercaillie eggs are kept intact due to attacks by predators, and only 50% of hatched chicks survive.
• The lifespan of wood grouse is about 12 years.
• It is almost impossible to tame wood grouse, and they rarely reproduce in captivity.

Drawing a bird is a task that often faces children and their parents. Sparrows, crows, jackdaws, nightingales, bullfinches, eagles, tits and other birds are common objects in children's albums. There is also room for unusual characters - firebirds and Angry Birds. However, everything is not as difficult as it sometimes seems for beginning artists. Using visual lessons and acting step by step, step by step, you can make a high-quality and clear drawing. After several trainings in drawing birds, the child will get better and better.

Step by step bird drawing lessons

Bird drawing lessons with step-by-step photos for beginners will help artists master the art of creating birds on paper.

Wintering bird: drawing a sparrow

Among wintering birds, the most popular are sparrows. Creating a drawing of such a bird is quite simple if you proceed in stages.

1. You need to draw an elongated oval. This is the base of the bird's body.
   
2. At the top of the workpiece you need to draw a figure with rounded contours. This will be the head. Several straight lines are drawn below. This is the tail of a wintering bird.
   
3. Next, the beak is clearly drawn.
   
4. Then you need to use smooth contours to create the outline of the breast, wings and make the eye.
   
5. You need to draw the sparrow's legs with a pencil.
   
6. All that remains is to color the drawing using colored pencils or felt-tip pens. If desired, you can use paints.
   

Bird in flight: drawing a seagull

1. The process of drawing a bird in flight is much simpler than it seems. Even a child can cope with the task. First you need to draw a circle, which in the future will become the head, and the body of the bird. The bottom and top of the body should be a little sharp. There is no need for roundness here. Then the eye and beak are drawn, after which the contours of the circle must be erased with an eraser.
   
2. Now we need to draw the span of the flying wings and the tail. The wing, which is located closer to the right edge of the paper sheet, should be much larger and longer than the second and the body. No need to grind!
   
3. Next you need to finish drawing the paws and wings. The first ones need to be depicted folded tightly to each other.
   
4. Then you need to draw lines that will make the thigh. To do this, the contour is drawn from the seagull's foot down. Next, the feathers on the tail and wings of the bird are depicted.
   
5. It is necessary to remove all unnecessary contours.
   
6. All that remains is to draw the shadows. The wings of the bird in flight should be made almost black and the underside of the seagull should be greatly darkened. Plus, a shadow also falls from the wing on the body. On the second wing, located closer to the left edge of the sheet, you should slightly outline the outlines of the feathers along the entire length. Similar contours need to be made on the body and around the head.
   

Angry Birds

Tit

This master class is designed to help you draw a tit.

1. Draw a circle: this is the future head. Using straight lines we sketch out the body of the tit.
   
2. We give the bird's head the necessary shape. We make the tit's beak and draw an eye in the upper right part of the head.
   
3. We make the contours of the tit’s body more distinct. The head should flow very smoothly into the body. Draw the abdomen round. We remove the auxiliary lines.
   
4. Now we draw a twig. We depict the wing of a tit and the upper part of the bird’s legs.
   
5. We complete the image of the paws. Draw the fingers and tail.
   
6. Using small, abrupt lines, we sketch out the boundaries of the color transitions. We draw feathers on the wing and tail.
   
7. We complete the work: shade the tit’s head and tail. Draw small feathers where necessary.
   

Woodpecker

Thanks to this master class, you can draw a very nice and realistic woodpecker step by step. MK will help adults and children who have decided to master the technique of drawing birds.

1. We schematically create the contours of the head and body of the future woodpecker. In this case, the sheet of paper should first be divided barely noticeably into four parts.
2. Next, a sketch of the tail and beak of the bird is also schematically made.
3. Now we need to draw the general outline of the torso of the depicted object and its head.
4. We are engaged in creating details and their clear drawing: eyes, beak, feathers, wings, etc.
5. We complete the work on the nuances and erase all the auxiliary elements.
6. We shade with a simple pencil all the necessary areas according to the natural colors of the woodpecker’s plumage.

Bullfinch

The proposed detailed MK will help beginners draw a very attractive bullfinch on their own.

1. Before starting work, divide the sheet into four segments. This will help you sketch correctly. We draw, as in the picture below, 3 circles. This is the basis of the future bullfinch.
   
2. Next, the general outline of the image is created using smooth lines.
   
3. We outline the previously created silhouette of the bullfinch.
   
4. Draw the bird's legs and tail. We create recognizable details of the bullfinch. Don't forget about the eyes. Erase all unnecessary lines.
   
5. Add small details of the bullfinch's legs and plumage.
   
6. We shade all the necessary areas.
   

Magpie

Using the step-by-step instructions below, you can easily draw a magpie. By following the recommendations and using drawings as tips, even novice artists will certainly succeed in creating a bird.

1. First we draw a circle. From it we form the head of the future magpie, drawing the beak and eye.
   
2. Let's sketch the silhouette of a magpie. At this stage, it is important not to forget about maintaining the proportions of the drawing.
   
3. Let's create the shape of the magpie's body.
   
4. We draw the tail, paws, wings.
   
5. We depict other details. We form a contour for separating the magpie shades.
   
6. We make the bird's plumage along the lower contour. We depict feathers and erase everything unnecessary.
   
7. We shade all areas in accordance with the plumage of the magpie.
   

As you can see, drawing a bird with a pencil step by step is not particularly difficult. Tips for beginners will help you cope with the task in a few steps. Both children and adults will enjoy these drawing lessons. After all, the image will certainly turn out clear, realistic and original.

The capercaillie is one of the largest birds living in forests. Its weight reaches 5 kg. The common wood grouse has several popular names: moss-grouse, wood-grouse, moss-grouse. This bird is from the pheasant family (order Galliformes).

A little about the types of wood grouse

The common capercaillie is a representative of one of the largest species of game birds. The common capercaillie species is divided into 3 subspecies: the white-bellied capercaillie, which lives in the eastern and central regions of Russia; dark taiga, living in the eastern and northern regions of the country; Western European black-bellied (in the forests of the western territories of the country).

Common capercaillie: photo, description

The capercaillie is the largest bird of the grouse (subfamily).

It differs from other representatives by its strongly rounded tail and unusual elongated feathers on the throat.

The plumage of the capercaillie is dark with a metallic tint, a bright red eyebrow, and the feathers under the beak look like a “beard.” The female capercaillie is more variegated in color (a mixture of rusty yellow, rusty brown, rusty red and white). And her throat, part of the upper chest and part of the wing are rusty red.

The common capercaillie is a bird whose size differs greatly between males and females. Males reach 110 cm or more, their wingspan has a span of 1.4 m. Females are much smaller - 1/3. The male's head is blackish. The back of the neck is ash-gray with black spots, and the front is gray-black. The color of the back is blackish with gray and brown spots. The chest is steel-green in color, its underside covered with white and black spots. The tail is black with white spots, the wings are brown. The beak is white and pink.

Distribution, habitat

The common capercaillie usually lives in coniferous, mixed and deciduous forests of Eurasia.

In practice, this bird leads, but it happens that sometimes it makes seasonal migrations.

A long time ago, wood grouse were found in all the forests of Eurasia, in the east of Siberia up to Transbaikalia (the western part). In the 18th-20th centuries, the number and habitat of wood grouse decreased greatly, and in some places these birds even disappeared. By the mid-18th century in Great Britain, these birds were completely exterminated. But subsequently, in 1837, the common wood grouse was again brought there from Sweden and took root perfectly.

In Russian territories, due to the deforestation of numerous forests, capercaillie populations began to retreat to the northern part of the country, and in some southern regions in their forest zones (Tula, Voronezh, Kursk, etc.) these birds disappeared completely. In addition to Russia and Sweden, wood grouse can also be found in Greece, Spain, the Alps, the Carpathians, Asia Minor and the Central German Mountains.

The capercaillie prefers more remote places in forests.

This bird is characterized by spring mating, which mostly occurs in trees. The common capercaillie has many unique features.

Description of behavior and habits

In summer, wood grouse moult is observed. At this time, they fly to particularly dense forest areas.

During this period, these birds exhibit a peculiar behavior: they periodically raise their tail and lower it, they also raise and throw their head back, while slowly moving along the branch.

Usually the capercaillie sings so enthusiastically at this time that he becomes deaf for a certain period. This is where its name comes from: capercaillie. The female, in turn, flies to the lek, where mating occurs, after which they leave it together and settle in the most remote and impassable places of the forest, where they molt.

The common capercaillie periodically appears in mixed and deciduous forests. These birds love them and they are rich in a variety of berries.

The bird flies rather heavily, noisily, often flapping its wings loudly, and mainly makes short flights.

The capercaillie spends the daytime on the ground and spends the night on tree branches. Sometimes he becomes overly aggressive when other animals appear. There are cases where wood grouse sometimes tried to attack dogs and other small domestic animals (stories from residents of Norway).

The common capercaillie is quite cautious, has excellent hearing and good eyesight. Therefore, hunting it is considered difficult.

Offspring

The main care for the offspring falls on the female. She makes a nest on the ground, often under the cover of bushes or fallen trees, where she subsequently lays eggs. A complete clutch usually consists of approximately 5-16 eggs.

The female incubates the eggs herself. She also continues to take care of the hatched chicks: warms them and protects them from predators.

Nutrition

The main type of food of wood grouse in the spring and summer consists of plant shoots, various flowers, tree buds, leaves, grass, forest berries, seeds and insects. In autumn, these birds feed mainly on larch needles, and in winter they are attracted to spruce and pine needles and buds. Chicks have a special diet: spiders and insects.

Conclusion

The common capercaillie is one of the most valuable objects of hunting for hunters. In this regard, in many areas of both Russia and other countries of the world, it has become a rather rare inhabitant, and in some places it has completely disappeared, and now various measures are being taken to protect this species.

The common capercaillie is listed in the Tula region. This should be remembered by everyone who is interested in hunting.

To further clarify the number, concentration and status of this bird on the territory of Russia, detailed and lengthy studies are needed.