The Scottish Capercaillie – Lek It Be

Anyone who has seen a male Capercaillie displaying with its tail feathers raised in a fan is likely to rank it as one of their most memorable birding moments ever. It is a hugely impressive sight! Sadly, the Scottish population of Capercaillie is on the verge of extinction - again. Capercaillie became extinct in Scotland in 1785. The current population comprises birds descended from individuals introduced from Sweden in the 19^th century. However, by the 1970s, surveys found that numbers had declined to around 2,000 birds and current estimates suggest that only around 500 birds remain, making this one of the UK’s most threatened species.

There are a number of threats to their survival, including habitat loss and fragmentation, deer fences and disturbance, particularly during the breeding season. Nesting females are especially prone to being disturbed, which has an effect on egg viability and can lead to chicks being exposed to predators, bad weather or abandonment. Therefore, at Naturetrek, we have decided to support the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project ‘Lek It Be’ in the Cairngorms and Speyside area, aimed at protecting the remaining individuals, which means we will not actively look for ‘Capers’ in their preferred habitat and will take measures to reduce our impact on the areas we are visiting while in areas known to hold Capercaillie populations. This includes considering carefully when we visit pine wood areas and making sure that we keep to official forest tracks. For further information please visit https://cairngormscapercaillie.scot/lek-it-be/ and https://cairngormscapercaillie.scot/capercaillie/.

Capercaillie are less vulnerable in other parts of Europe and can be seen on some of our Swedish and Estonian tours (our Sweden in Spring tour is a great choice, read a trip report from our Managing Director, Andy Tucker, here). Please contact the Naturetrek office for further information.