Hazel Grouse reunion

I have previously written that Hazel Grouse are a challenge to find this year. After having my last meeting with my previously reliable male (and his normally far shyer mate) in February I have really struggled to find birds despite checking many territories that have been occupied in last 20 years or so. It does seem to me and others who know the species that it has become genuinely far scarcer in Oslo’s forests and quite abruptly. Why this should be is unclear. There has been extensive forestry work in some areas which have changed some territories but there are also empty territories in nature reserves where everything looks the same as it always has.

It was therefore a big relief to find two birds in the same small area yesterday. Both sang and almost in duett with one song being notably louder and clearer than the other. I only got to see the louder bird well and this a nicely marked male with a clearly visible red skin patch above the eyes. As I did not see the other bird well I was unsure as to whether I was hearing two males or a male and female and also whether one of them could be my previously faithful male (we were only a kilometre from his old territory which now seems empty). Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) tells me though that females do not sing like males and it also tells me that each males song is different.

This video has the sound of both birds singing and sometimes on top of each other. It also features the Beast and as I have previously written I think having dog in tow does help find Hazel Grouse as they seem to show curiosity towards the animal:

I have previously noted that Hazel Grouse song varies but had never thought too much about it and hadn't worked out that the variation is between males and not within how each male sings. When I listen to my own recordings I can hear that Old Faithful sounds the same on each recording I have taken between 2021 and 2026 whereas other males sound slightly different. Neither of these males songs is the same as Old Faithful which can be heard here this February and here back in 2021 the year I found him and his song can be heard to be the same 5 years apart. (I think I need to go through all the videos I have with singing birds to see if I can identify the same individuals over time from other territories I have visited over the years)

Hazel Grouse are normally to be found in male-female pairs so finding two males together is odd but autumn is when pairs are formed and there may well have been a female nearby that they were trying to impress or they could have been competing over territory. That one bird had a clearer and louder song than the other suggests to me that bird with a weaker song may have been a bird of the year who was only just starting to sing.

Here is a video of the stronger singing male (but not of him singing) and then some photos of him.

male Hazel Grouse (jerpe)

it was dark in the forest and the superzoom was pushed to its limits