A total of 62 mitochondrial haplotypes were detected from 174 samples of hazel grouse Bonasa bonasia from Hokkaido, Primorskii, Sakhalin, Magadan, Siberia and Bohemia using 428 bp of the mitochondrial DNA control region. Haplotype diversity for four populations in Hokkaido was more than 0.8, suggesting that a reasonable population size had been maintained throughout their history. Haplotypes from Hokkaido and haplotypes from Primorskii were clearly separated from other Eurasian continent haplotypes, not only in the phylogenetic tree but also in the network tree. Haplotypes from Hokkaido, Sakhalin and Magadan radiated from the hypothetical root composed of a double cubic network of parallel substitutions. Most of the haplotypes were separated by three substitutions from the root, or within a maximum of five substitutions. Pairwise sequence differences for most Eurasian haplotypes had a bimodal curve consisting of the first peak at 0–1 substitution differences and the second peak at 3–4 substitution differences, whereas those for Hokkaido haplotypes had only a peak at around 4–6 substitution differences. These observations most likely indicate that the populations analysed were differentiated about 40,000 years ago, and have expanded to the present distribution during the climatic optimum over the last 10,000 years.