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Capercaillie

The capercaillie is a member of the grouse family and it is the largest game bird found in the British Isles.  The can be no mistaking the capercaillie.  The male bird is a large, almost black bird with brown wing coverts, a large hooked bill and red wattles over the eyes.  The female bird is about two-thirds the size of the cock bird and does not possess the glossy black appearance of the cock.  Instead, she is a greyish-brown bird with a subtle barred pattern in her plumage.  The hen capercaillie will incubate up to eight eggs in a clutch for around 28 days.  Like many game birds. capercaillie chicks are active within hours of the last chick hatching.

In the British Isles, the capercaillie is found exclusively in the eastern part of central Scotland, in the Tay Valley region, and in the Scottish highlands.  Their range however, extends across many parts of northern Europe where their favoured habitat, the pine forest, abounds.  During the 12th century there were colonies of capercaillie present in Ireland but the changes in the land use in that country and the felling of the native Irish oak and Scots pine, resulted in its demise as a native bird in Ireland.   In Scotland, the bird was thought to be extinct by the 18th century.  A amazing programme of restocking from Scandinavia in the 19th century re-introduced the bird to the northern portion of Scotland.  From then the numbers of the capercaillie have been increasing with colonies now well established in a number of areas.