During the first days of May, the females prepare their nesting sites with great secrecy. Camouflage seems to be of greater importance than any complicated construction. It is usually placed in the cover of grasses, at the edge of a small clearing in the forest, in a mossy layer under a slanting trunk of an overhanging tree, or on a narrow terrace of soil on a steep, forested slope. The eggs of Chinese grouse are excellently camouflaged, with a pale brownish colour and darker spots of variable size. The mean clutch size is six eggs. All of the brooding is performed by the female only, although the male can often be observed near the nest site, providing vigilance for his mate and their eggs. The 27-29 days of incubation are especially critical for the parents, because many egg predators are active in the forest in spring, such as jays, stoats, martens or even man. The main predators are mammals that are active in the evening or night. An inattentive yak may also trample the eggs.
Incubation requires a full four weeks, and the downy chicks hatch at the end of June or beginning of July. After the chicks hatch, the family leaves the nest and never returns to it. The chicks are dependent on warmth from the mother for another four to five weeks. She warms them under her breast feathers, similar to a hen. When foraging, the vivacious chicks search in small forest openings for insects. They provide the protein necessary for their rapid growth during their first weeks of life. They quickly climb over roots and tumble over stones and may stop for a sand bath in the warm soil at a sunny forest edge. However, because their small bodies cool after a few minutes, the chicks must frequently return to the brooding mother. While leading the family during such excursions, the mother keeps vocal contact with her chicks.
The brood normally lives with the hen for about three months.
After leaving their roosting trees in the early morning, the grouse start their day with intensive feeding in willows or fruiting mountain ash (Sorbus koehniana), whose beautiful white berries are a much preferred food in autumn. Sometimes conflicts started when feeding males came too close to each other. Like in the hazel grouse, territorial behavior in the Chinese grouse is most intense in spring and autumn.
The clutch size of the Chinese grouse is between 5 and 8 eggs, 6 in the mean
Autumn territoriality decreases when the males leave their territories, to join winter flocks. After the broods break up, the females also move 0.2-5.0 km to wintering areas, where they also join flocks.
From our comparisons of behavior and vocalizations of the Chinese grouse with its most closely related species, the hazel grouse (Bonasa bonasia) of Eurasia and the ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) of Northern America, we win insights of the evolution of the grouse family. Therefore research about its biology should be continued in the future.
