Black Grouse - THE COOK OF THE MOOR

The Black Grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) was, until a few decades ago, a typical inhabitant of the moors in the Bavarian-Bohemian border mountains. It bears a close resemblance its cousin the capercaillie but is significantly smaller. The magnificent black grouse – also called black cock – is easily recognised from its tail feathers bent in the form of a lyre. The female is brown all over with black flecks, because nesting on the ground means that she needs to be well camouflaged. Their courtship is as spectacular as that of the capercaillie. The black grouse needs open landscape as its habitat, where it can find sufficient quantities of birch trees, whose shoots and seeds it needs for food. As many moors here have been dried out in order to use them as fields for agricultural purposes, the black grouse, roughly the size of a farm bird, finds suitable habitats harder and harder to find. With the ending of small scale farming, the black grouse has also gradually disappeared from our countryside.

 These days, the black grouse has almost died out in Germany. Some remain in the Bavarian Forest. In the Sumava National Park, especially around Horska Kvilda, where the demanding black grouse can still find suitable areas to live in the moors. The population, estimated at 40-50 breeding pairs, is threatened even here.

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