This is the moment a fearless capercaillie sends a shiver down the spine of a snowboarder at a Russian ski resort.

The boarder had fallen in deep snow and was immediately confronted by the angry bird.

Puffing up its chest and spreading its tail feathers as wide as possible, the bird – a member of the grouse family – flew at the interloper.

The boarder’s pal could be heard chuckling as he filmed the huge bird intimidating him as he lay on the slope in Sheregesh on 5th February.

The grouse carried on menacing its human rival, even as he tried to scare it away with a pair of ski poles.

Dmitry Kovalenko of Novosibirsk later told local media: “This is not the slope where the bulk of tourists ride, and the area is already much further away, closer to the forest.

“When we saw the bird, it began to approach us and barged into us, defending its territory. I was on a snowboard, I wanted to ride off a little, but I fell.”

When Dmitry was able to pick himself up, he and his four pals promptly left the area, keeping the mobile phone footage of the stand-off as a memento.

The snowboarder said: “I do not think this capercaillie chose me by chance.

“I think there is even a certain sacred meaning in it: a few years ago I worked with an artist, and he painted a picture where my meeting with this bird is literally foretold.”

The capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is a European game bird of the grouse family.

It is the largest of all surviving grouse species, with the heaviest known specimen weighing 16 lb.

It is considered a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature because it is plentiful in the wild.