Bird of the Month: Black

The Black Grouse

by john mcewen illustrated by carry akroyd

Good morrow to thy sable beak, And glossy plumage, dark and sleek, Thy crimson moon and azure eye, Cock of the heath, so wildly shy!

Joanna Baillie (1762-1851), from The Black Cock

To see the lek or communal display of the lyre-tailed male black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) or blackcock is increasingly rare in Britain.

Seventy years ago, black grouse were widespread, except in uninhabited Ireland. Now their stronghold is the Angus glens, with a smattering in the Borders and northern England and barely any in Wales. The UK population is 4,850 (2016).

Last September, Carry Akroyd and I were privileged to see a lek on one of Angus’s best and largest grouse moors. I associated leks with spring – that is when the females, aptly called greyhens, attend to mate with the polygamous cocks. But in fact, leks as social jousts cease only in deepest winter and from late June through August.

I also envisaged them hidden in the wilds. On the contrary, the head gamekeeper drove us along the glen’s main road until, in a pasture up ahead, dots magnified into blackcocks. A bordering fir plantation allowed us to drive up a farm track unseen and into the field’s top corner, from where we stealthily descended until the 17 birds came into view. A game of grandmother’s footsteps ensued as the vehicle inched closer to the group, stopping when an occasional dispute developed.

This entailed one bird scurrying towards another and challenging it with a threatening display – wings drooped to expose two bold white shoulder spots, tail fully fanned and fluffed underneath into a flamboyant white rosette. Challenges were either met or avoided. After an hour, one yard too far in the vehicle sent them off as a covey on to the ‘hill’.

Leks are not always so conveniently placed. On this 17,500-acre estate, which supports about 120 black grouse, there are half a dozen lek sites. A lek lasts from dawn for several hours.

Black grouse feed at dusk. In winter and rough weather, they descend to shelter and forage on less exposed ground. Like red grouse, they flock from the end of autumn. Their favourite habitat is heath and moorland, combined with birch and pine woods – buds and berries are their staple diet. Habitat change, with drainage and commercial forestry the chief enemy, is the main reason for their decline.

They are less vocal than red grouse. A far-carrying call like running water is the blackcock’s spring song. Usually half the maximum ten chicks fail to reach the safety of flight at 14-21 days. On maturity, the genders divide and become the wildest of game birds.

They are legal quarry but it is etiquette not to shoot them, even if they fly within range during a red-grouse drive. The estate we visited has nine gamekeepers, who keep legally killed predators such as stoats and crows to a beneficial minimum.

Such protection and exemplary moorland management also attract an exceptional variety of summernesting waders.