Black Grouse

The black grouse is a large, strongly dimorphic gamebird. Adult males are predominantly black with a deep blue gloss on the neck and back, a contrasting white wing line and undertail, and red bare skin above each eye. Females are smaller and patterned grey-brown, providing camouflage on the ground. Males measure roughly sixty centimetres and commonly weigh 1.1–1.25 kilograms, while females are about forty-five centimetres long and generally weigh 0.75–1.1 kilograms. (Wikipedia, general species account)

This largely sedentary grouse occupies moorland and steppe during the breeding season, often close to wooded cover. In winter it spends more time in dense forest and feeds chiefly on conifer needles. The female alone builds the nest, incubates the eggs and tends the chicks. Several geographic forms occur across the Palearctic; two named subspecies are reported from parts of Mongolia, with L. t. baikalensis in the north and L. t. mongolicus in the west. (Wikipedia, general species account)