The Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) is a large bird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, breeding across northern Eurasia in moorland and bog areas near to woodland, mostly boreal.
Black Grouse is a large bird with males being 24–27 centimetres (9.4–11 in) long and weighing 1,000–1,450 grams (2.2–3.2 lb) and females 21–24 centimetres (8.3–9.4 in) and weighing 750–1,110 grams (1.7–2.4 lb). The cock is very distinctive, with black plumage, apart from red wattles and a white wingbar, and a lyre-shaped tail, which appears forked in flight. His song is loud, bubbling and somewhat dove-like.
The female is greyish-brown and has a cackling call. She takes all responsibility for nesting and caring for the chicks, as is typical with gamebirds.
Reproduction and distribution[]
Black grouse have a very distinctive and well recorded courtship ritual or game. At dawn in the spring, the males strut around in a traditional area and display whilst making a highly distinctive mating call. This process is called a lek - the grouse are said to be lekking. In western Europe these gatherings seldom involve more than 40 birds; in Russia 150 is not uncommon and 200 have been recorded.
Black Grouse can be found across Europe from Great Britain (but not Ireland) through Scandinavia and Estonia into Russia.
Conservation[]
This species is declining in western Europe due to loss of habitat, disturbance, predation by foxes, crows, etc., and small populations gradually dying out.
They have declined in the UK (especially England), having disappeared from many of their former haunts. They are now extinct in Lancashire, Derbyshire, Exmoor, East Yorkshire, New Forest, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, Quantock Hills, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Kent, Wiltshire and Surrey.
A program to re-introduce Black Grouse into the wild started in 2003 in the Upper Derwent Valley area of the Peak District in England. 30 grouse were released in October 2003, followed by 10 male grouse in December 2004 and a further 10 male and 10 female in April 2005. The programme is being run jointly by the National Trust, Severn Trent Water and Peak District National Park.
Conservation groups helping to revive the Black Grouse include the RSPB and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Meanwhile, the tails of black-cocks have, since late Victorian times, been popular adornments for hats worn with Highland Dress. Most commonly associated with Glengarry and Balmoral or Tam O'Shanter caps, they still continue to be worn by pipers of civilian and military pipe-bands. Since 1904, all ranks of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers have worn them in their full-dress headgear and that tradition is carried on in the dress glengarries of the current Scottish-super regiment, The Royal Regiment of Scotland.
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