Some of Scotland’s rarest birds have been caught on camera squaring off in a spectacular mating ritual on the Royal Family’s Balmoral Estate in Aberdeenshire.
The Balmoral ranger service works carefully to preserve the pinewood home of the capercaillie, a huge ground-dwelling grouse known for its unusual call that sounds like knocking.
As part of their conservation work, the team has put in place a number of wildlife camera traps throughout the Deeside estate in order to keep an eye on the small population resident in Balmoral.
Over the past month, the male birds, which are much larger than the females and have striking black plumage, have been taking part in a key part of the breeding season called lekking.
The ranger team’s cameras managed to photograph the birds in the height of lekking, showing off their impressive fan of tail feathers and aggressively competing with each other as they seek to mate with the smaller, brown-coloured females.
The species is highly endangered and at risk of extinction in Scotland due to years of population decline caused by factors including habitat loss and collisions with deer fences.
There are now thought to be little more than 1,00 capercaillies in the UK today.
Glyn Jones, head ranger at Balmoral Estate, said: “The birds are very aggressive in these fights. They are full of testosterone and can sometimes be badly injured.
“Capercaillie numbers have gone down a lot over the past 30 years and although the population has stabilised a bit, it is still at a very low level and they’re currently a very rarely seen bird.
“They are very endangered in Deeside.
“There’s a bit more of a stronghold for the species elsewhere in Scotland, like up in Speyside, but there’s really not a lot of them left here.
“Monitoring them with these cameras in the forest is important for our conservation, and we were really lucky to capture the birds actually lekking.
“By monitoring them this way, it’s non-invasive and we’re not disturbing them.”
