Black Grouse

• GeneralThe males display at communal leks at dawn, tails spread into a lyre.
• Its lek is one of the most impressive natural spectacles in northern Europe: dozens of males gather before dawn in a clearing, fan out their lyre-shaped tails and give a continuous bubbling coo that carries for kilometres.
• The males at the centre of the arena get most of the matings, and the positions are contested for years: a male can take several seasons to reach the middle.
• Its decline in western Europe is tied to the abandonment of mountain grazing and to the afforestation of the heaths and open mosaics it needs.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Mosaics of heath, peat bog, birch woodland and grassland in northern Eurasia and its mountains

Birth weight

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Size at birth

Precocial: born covered in down and leaves the nest within a few hours

Sexual maturity

12 months

Gestation / incubation

26 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

7 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Lyrurus tetrix

Best time: From April to May, at dawn, at the leks in bogs and mountain clearings, when the males display and fight.