Hazel Grouse

How to recognise it

• Grey upperparts with blackish bars, underparts mottled in brown, black and white
• In flight it shows a grey tail with a black tip
• Male has a black throat and white-edged black bib, female a paler rusty brown throat
• Male has a fine red stripe above the eye and a clear brownish crest

Call and song

The song is a whistling, rhythmic phrase as high in pitch as a Goldcrest's. The male gives a high ti-ti-ti-ti-ti and the female a flowing tettettettettet. The calls and the whirring wing noise in flight are often the only sign that the bird is there.

Where and when

The Hazel Grouse is a resident bird in Sweden and is reported all year round. It occurs from Småland to Lappland, but not in the mountains, and is most numerous in the forests of Norrland. Its share of all bird reports is highest in Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Jämtland. Sweden has 80 000 to 120 000 breeding pairs, but numbers in southern and southwestern Sweden have fallen sharply during the 2000s.

Food and behaviour

It eats seeds, berries, buds and young leaves, and in winter birch buds are its main food. Small chicks are fed mainly on insects. It is very sedentary, does not form larger winter flocks, and in snowy areas spends most of the winter day in snow holes. It flushes with noisy wingbeats at about ten metres and usually takes cover in trees.