Bird of the Year - Black Grouse

The black grouse (Tetrao Tetrix) is a bird in the grouse family, a long-established gamebird in Estonia. It breeds mainly in the Eurasian forest and forest-steppe area, extending from Western Europe to the Far East. The black grouse is a sedentary species that probably arrived in Estonia when suitable habitats developed in the area after the last ice age. The plumage is clearly different in the cock and the hen: the cock mainly black with a lyre-shaped tail and the hen greyish brown. The species is polygamous with a very distinctive courtship ritual known as lek. The female takes all responsibility for nesting and caring for the chicks. In Estonia the black grouse is a protected species of the 3rd category and may not be shot.