Crops & Breeds › Grouse & Ptarmigan

🪶 Hazel Grouse

Grouse & Ptarmigan · breed reference

THE ONE TO START WITH, IF ANY: the smallest Eurasian grouse and the species with the longest record in private European aviculture, kept and bred in planted aviaries for decades where every other member of this family defeats people. Why it works when the others don't: it's small, it pairs off instead of lekking, it's not a specialist feeder in the way its relatives are, and it will accept a good game-bird ration with browse and insects. It still wants dense cover, cool shade and to be left alone — a hazel grouse that can always hide is a hazel grouse that lives. Not native to North America, so the paperwork is the ordinary breeder's licence; the difficulty is finding stock, not permission.