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I'm watching a show called Wild Russia on Planet Green. They were in the Euro'sUrals. They showed a "black grouse" that resembled our prairie chicken. The male was black with white and did a mating dance like the prairie chicken. The female looked like a regular prairie chicken, best I could recall.

Geno coulda told us a bit more, I'm sure.

Chuck, there are not other "Black grouses" in Rusia then the one you find F.E. in Scotland or else.
I hunt in Russia, they have capercaille but this is 3 X bigger then black grouse.
Can you give the exact place or location in Russia, because the country is big.
Marc.

Marc,
Yes, the bird was a black grouse from the Urals. They showed the mating dance. Apparently the same bird as the Scottish black grouse. Also, apparently rare?

The region they showed was apparently all over the Ural mountain range. They showed the "7 Brothers" rock formation as well.

The same bird can be found in England and Scotland too. I saw quite a few when I was in a part of Scotland deer stalking last year. The blackcock is the male and the greyhen is the female. The Capercaille is a big bird and quite vocal. They occour in some parts of Scotland and across Scandinavia. Lagopus.....

And "Capercaille" means something like "dance party" in the Scots version of Gaelic, once called "Urse" by the English (maybe they couldn't pronounce "Irish"?).

The " Horse of the Woods" Estonia, two years ago.

This bird is a classic quarry for hunting over bird dogs in late summer and early fall, and with laika dogs in the late fall (the laikas tree them and attract the hunter's attention by barking, the hunter stalks and shoots). It can also be decoyed, when they gather together in flocks for the winter, or flushed from the snow holes they dig to spend the night in. The population can decrease and increase dramatically, depending mostly on three factors: the intensive agriculture with generous use of fertilizers and pesticides (the introduction of it almost wiped the bird out in 1970's, and the decay brought the bird back in the 1990's); the weather in winter (the birds spend the night in the snow, and a sudden drop of the temp. from above to below freezing point forms a shell of ice the birds can't break); the predation from racoon dogs and, surprisingly, wild pigs. Where I live, black grouse inhabits only limited areas, and is only legal to hunt in spring, on special license (only males are legal, and since the bird is polygamous, this is supposed to have almost zero effect on the population), and I've never hunted it. But around St. Peterburg blackcocks are quite numerous, and Grigory will surely be able to tell you more.

A very poor picture of a blackcock on a misty morning in Scotland:

Lagopus, that's a FINE photo! Realism: you even didn't airbrush out the mud puddle he was drinking out of or the gravel he was fillin' his craw with. Gets the mist and the heather just right, too.

(You don't have to actually say "misty morning" when speaking about Scotland--my experience is that they're all "misty" from misty like that to misty like the bottom of the sea! Just "morning in Scotland" will do....).

Mike A and Lagopus, I think that picture is a wonderful one with perfect color. Much more realism than a very sunny day.