I was driving across a moor in County Durham in January and I spotted this female Black Grouse from the car.
It is the first close photograph I have ever managed of a female Black Grouse. Some books call them Greyhens but they are brown rather than grey so that seems like quite a daft name for them.
Unlike moorland-dwelling Red Grouse, Black Grouse inhabit a range of habitats around the moorland edge. In late June and early July they can often be found in hay meadows where they feed on seeds of grasses, rushes and sedges. At this time of year, females are often accompanied by their chicks which feed on insects in the meadows. Once bilberry and crowberry set fruit the adult grouse will feed on these.
Females are more elusive than males so pictures of them appear on the internet far less frequently than the showy males. I barely cropped this photograph as I wanted to show her among the moorland grasses.
And for completeness here’s a male taken from the car on the same moor the previous June, which is also uncropped.
