Where are the hazel grouses and what do they eat?

For sure, many of you remember poems, where the bourgeois are advised to enjoy hazel-grouse meat while there is such an opportunity. What are these birds? Do their meat have such a high nutritional value?

Yes, the hazel grouses are appreciated all over the world for the excellent taste qualities of their dietary meat. But in the forest they are very difficult to obtain, as their coloring almost completely merges with the bark and branches. However, you can notice them by the noisy flight and the whistling, which these birds communicate with each other.

Ryabchik is a small bird, whose size is approximately equal to that of an average dove. The weight reaches about 500 g. Feathering is gray in color, covered with tan marks of reddish and black. The head is crowned by a slightly noticeable crest, which makes the birds of grouse look interesting and unusual.

In flight, this bird appears smoky, and at the edge of the tail a black strip is strongly distinguished . Distinguish between females and males is simple: the first throat is colored in a dark color, on which a white spot is visible. All European birds of the hazel grouse are much darker and smaller than their relatives, who live in Siberia.

As a rule, they are found in spruce and mixed forests (with a predominance of coniferous species), and most often they can be found in river valleys and light glades. Strangely enough, in pure pine forests they almost never occur.

In general, this bird lives in almost all the forests of our country, with the exception of the lands of Kamchatka. It is believed that by the autumn their population grows to 30 million pieces, and in the taiga for about 100 hectares of forest accounts for about 20 individuals.

By the nature of the birds, hazel grouses are a sedentary species, although they can easily make long flights if necessary. Although they are caused only by the depletion of the forage reserve in the forest.

The season of the year in general greatly affects their nutrition. In winter and autumn they eat "earrings" of alder and birch, snacking kidneys, and in summer they switch to insects and their larvae, not disdaining seeds of grasses and grasses when they are in a state of milk ripeness.

In the autumn, they get into small flocks of 5-10 birds, but often keep in pairs. If birds detect a berry, then they settle on the nearest trees, eating out all the stocks of blueberries, cranberries and cranberries. Siberians know that in winter they constantly hibernate in snowdrifts, daytime spending on the branches of firs and pines.

As for the nesting grounds, the hazel grouse is a rather "negligent" bird, since they settle on a nest right on the ground, often without bothering with long arrangements for its arrangement.

To hunters, they are known for their extremely cautious behavior. But if you frighten them away, then the noise of flight will not let you make a mistake. This is due to the fact that during the flight they very often flap their wings, periodically switching to planning.

In the autumn and spring, you can often hear the same lingering whistle, of which we have already spoken above. The current of these birds begins in the spring, and there is no exact date: they begin to take such a responsible action only after the sunny and warm weather is established. Thus, a hazel bird (photo of which is in the article) can serve as an excellent "barometer" indicating good weather.