Island Miniatures - The Capercaillie Scotland's Rare Bird

By Sharma Krauskopf

Capercaillie - The Cock of the Wood

Cock Capercaillie Sings
Click clock! Click clock, Click clock. The capercaillie cock is calling for a mate. It is spring in the wildwood of Caledon. My last trip to Scotland I met Jim McBain who is the gardener at the Tobmore Distillery but who's hobby is hillwalking and photography. He gave me many wonderful pictures of "cappies". Being Spring I felt compelled to use his pictures and do a story on what the Gaels call the Capullcoille, the cock of the wood or Capercaillie. Most of us are familiar with the singing group which has taken this beautiful bird as their name but I did not know until recently capercaillie was first and foremost a Scottish bird.

The capercaillie is a rare bird. There are perhaps 4,000 left in the whole of Scotland. In the 1970s the population was estimated at 20,000 birds, all descendants from birds reintroduced from Sweden in the 19th century after the Scottish capercaillie had become extinct, probably due to the extensive felling of pinewoods. These incomers rapidly spread aided by further introductions as recently as 20 years ago. Capercaillies were found in suitable woodlands from the Cowal peninsula in the west right across to Buchan in the north-east of Scotland. But since then things have gone wrong, and now the only strongholds are in Deeside, Starthspey and parts of Perthshire, with a few isolated outposts elsewhere.

The disappearance of the bird is blamed on many things including the increased fox population which get the babies and the eggs to the disturbance of man in their habitat since they are basically very shy birds. Wetter weather may be taking the young chick since they are susceptible to chilling.

Female Capercaillie Listens
Being so shy it is the exception rather than the rule to get a decent view of one. They are very difficult to see in the woods even though they are very large. Most of the time they see you before you see them and fly off. The cock in Jim's pictures he calls a "rogue". Jim came upon him in the woods and he was very curious about these humans. In fact Jim got so close he has a scar on his finger where the cock decided to taste him.

We have another page with Jim photos and more information. Be sure and visit "Scottish Facts" for more information and pictures of the beautiful Scottish capercaillie.

See you next month when I will tell you more about Jim McBain who is one of the most interesting people I have met in my Scotland adventures and show some more of his pictures.

You can contact me by email at information@scottishradiance.com

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures.

I am a contributing editor for Suite101.com which is devoted to guiding you to the best of the internet and if you would like to take a tour please join me at All Things Scottish

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