Black grouse

The black grouse was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tetrao tetrix. Both Tetrao and tetrix come from Ancient Greek words referring to some form of game bird. The black grouse is now placed in the genus Lyrurus that was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William Swainson. The male and female are sometimes referred to by their folk names, blackcock and greyhen, respectively. These names first occur in the literature with John Ray in 1674. Subspecies The black grouse has six recognized subspecies. Black grouse populations differ slightly in size and coloration, with birds increasing in size further east of their range: • L. t. baikalensis (Lorenz T., 1911) - southeastern Siberia to northern Mongolia and northwestern Manchuria (China) • L. t. britannicus (Witherby & Lönnberg, 1913) - Scotland, Wales and northern England • L. t. mongolicus (Lönnberg, 1904) - eastern Kyrgyzstan and northwestern China towards eastern Kazakhstan, south-central Siberia and western Mongolia • L. t. tetrix (Linnaeus, 1758) - Scandinavia to southern France and northern Italy and northeastern Siberia • L. t. ussuriensis (Kohts, 1911) - eastern Siberia and northeastern China including northwest Korea. • L. t. viridanus (Lorenz T., 1891) - southeastern Russia to southwestern Siberia ==Description and appearance==

The black grouse is a large bird with males measuring roughly around in length and weighing , sometimes up to , with females approximately and weighing . The cock's fancy plumage is predominantly black with deep-blue hues on his neck and back, which contrasts the white wingline and undertail coverts, as well as red bare skin above each eye. On the other hand, the hen is much drabber and cryptically colored to blend in easily with the dense undergrowth, especially when nesting. The black grouse, along with the Caucasian grouse, has long outer rectrices (tail feathers) that curl outward and arranged in a way it resembles the frame of a Greek lyre, hence the genus name, Lyrurus. ==Distribution and habitat==

Black grouse can be found on open habitats across Europe (Swiss-Italian-French Alps especially) from Great Britain through Scandinavia, Estonia and across Russia. Although believed to once to live in Ireland, it now no longer resides there. In Eastern Europe they can be found in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Romania and Ukraine. There is a population in the Alps, and isolated remnants in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Black grouse are adapted to an extensive array of habitats across Eurasia, though most frequently utilize the transitionary zones between forests and open clearings, especially steppe, heathland, grassland and pasture when near agricultural fields. Depending on the season, they will overwinter in large flocks in dense forests, and feed primarily on the leaves and buds of coniferous and broadleaf trees, such as Scots pine, Siberian larch, silver birch, and Eurasian aspen. Throughout the spring and summer, they tend to favor open spaces to seek potential mates and raise broods, switching their diet to berries, shoots and stems of cranberries, bog bilberries, myrtleberries, and other Vaccinium shrubs. They avoid the most extreme of desert and polar regions. ==Conservation status==

Although this species has declined throughout most of its range in western Europe, it is not considered to be vulnerable globally due to the large population (global estimate is 15–40 million individuals) and slow rate of decline. ==Breeding and nesting==

Black grouse have a very distinctive and well-recorded courtship ritual. Every dawn in the spring, male grouse begin competition with other males in hopes of attracting a hen to mate with. They will display to signal their territory and vigor by fanning out their elaborate lyre-shaped tails and inflating their necks on designated open ground called a lek. Their song consists of a long, dove-like bubbling coo or murmur. Black grouse hens visiting the lek decide the overall healthiest male, though not all females may arrive at every lek. In western Europe, these leks seldom contain more than 40 birds; in Russia, 150 is not uncommon and 200 have been recorded. When mated successfully, she will fly away from the site to a suitable nesting site with an abundance of dense shrub or tall vegetation, often located at a tree base in between roots, under low branches, beside a boulder, or extremely rarely, a used raptor's or corvid's nest off the ground. A dent ( wide by deep) is scraped out on the dirt floor and cushioned with grasses, sticks, leaves, and feathers. About 6–11 pale buff eggs speckled brown are then laid in the nest, incubated for approx. 23–28 days. The chicks consume invertebrates, transitioning to more plant matter as they mature. By around 10–14 days and so forth, they are capable of short flights. Where their range overlaps in similar biomes of other species, they are capable of hybridizing with the ringneck pheasant, western capercaillie, black-billed capercaillie, Siberian grouse, hazel grouse, and willow ptarmigan. ==Relationship to humans==

The tails of black-cocks have, since late Victorian times, been popular adornments for hats worn with Highland Dress. Most commonly associated with Glengarry and Balmoral or Tam o' Shanter caps, they still continue to be worn by pipers of civilian and military pipe bands. Since 1904, all ranks of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers have worn them in their full-dress headgear and that tradition is carried on in the dress glengarries of the current Scottish super regiment, the Royal Regiment of Scotland. ==Gallery==

File:Birkhahn.jpg|Male displaying File:Tetrao tetrix from ja.jpg|Painting of a male and female File:Teeri.jpg|Female File:Flickr - Rainbirder - Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) Male.jpg|On snow File:Тетерев.jpg|Taxidermies with different color anomalies ==References==