Black Grouse Call MP3s
This track reproduces the Black Grouse's bubbling lek display call, useful for identification, lek-site scouting, or wildlife study as well as where hunting remains legal.
Also known as
Recordings (4)
About this species
Around 53 cm in length, the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix) is a ground-dwelling gamebird: the blue-black male famous for its outward-curled, lyre-shaped tail. It displays on open moorland and bog at the edge of birch and pine woods.
At the lek males pour out a continuous, dove-like bubbling 'rookoo' interspersed with hissing 'sneezes'. It feeds on buds, catkins, shoots and berries, and on insects in the breeding season. Males gather at communal leks to bubble, hiss and spar at first light. Closely tied to farmland and scrub, its fortunes have long mirrored those of traditional mixed agriculture across Europe.
Legal use
Black Grouse remains legal quarry in several countries but its status is far from uniform and its population is in genuine trouble in much of its western range. In the UK it is Red-listed as a species of high conservation concern and, while technically still legal quarry under the Game Acts in England, Scotland and Wales (open season nominally 20 August to 10 December), most grouse moors and shooting estates have voluntarily refrained from shooting it for over a decade, especially in its northern England stronghold, so genuinely legal shooting opportunities are now rare in practice. In France it is still classified as game and can be hunted (cocks only) outside designated protection zones, subject to strict regional regulation. Many other Western and Central European populations are in decline, and several range states have introduced strict quotas, regional closures, or full protection in response, while larger boreal populations across Scandinavia and Russia remain more secure. Check the current legal status for your specific country and region and see our full country-by-country disclaimer.