With aliases of jungle fowl, black-beaked
grouse and Bangzi fowl, it belongs to the Tetraonidae family of Galliformes
order. Its scientific name is Tetrao parvirostris (Latin), or Hazel Grouse
(English).
It is the largest in fowl family of avifauna
-- the largest male adult can weigh up to 4 kilograms, and the majority is about
3 kilograms. Its head and neck have blue purple flare, and its shoulder, primary
remiges, as well as the tip of some tectices of alae and tails are fresh white.
Its tail is long and large, slightly shorter than the wings and in the shape of
a wedge. Its lower body is black and tan, dotted with white spots. The tips of
tectices under the tail have white spots of about 2 to 2.5 centimeters wide. Its
beak, feet and toe are all black. The naked skin above its two eyes is
red.
Hazel Grouse is the
typical representative avifauna living in coniferous forests of the sub-frigid
zone, fond of inhabiting in mingled broadleaf-larchen forests, especially with
alders, oaks, cuckoos and other broadleaf. It mainly feeds on burgeons, branches
and leaves of Korean pines, larches, birches, as well as berries, grass seeds
and animals such as spiders, snails, beetles and ants. It is estrous in the last
ten days of March, and there are combats for seizing females in males. It lays
eggs in the beginning of May, 6 to 12 eggs each brood, and the incubation period
lasts 22 to 24 days.
Its main enemy is sable.
It is distributed in areas of the Greater Xing'an Mountain and the Lesser Xing'an Mountain in
the northeast of China.