Inside the Wild Rituals of Black Grouse Courtship

My photographic journey through the mystery that is the black grouse lek! These birds have had a good breeding season and seem to be doing very well in the North Pennines.

A photographic journal of my lekking season 2025...

The 2025 black grouse breeding season has been a successful one across the North Pennines, with greyhens spotted all over the moors leading broods of chicks now almost ready to fledge. The future looks bright for these iconic birds, especially with projects such as the GWCT translocation, which has already seen 20 black grouse moved from the North Pennines into Yorkshire. Once widespread across every county in the UK, black grouse have declined dramatically in recent decades — but initiatives like this give hope of restoring them to some of their traditional strongholds.

*First sunlight hitting the black grouse*

The males are the most obvious with their intense blue/black colouring, red wattles and white bottoms whereas the greyhens (females) are much more discreet and secretive. Greyhens only fly into the lek for short periods of time, in the beginning weeks they are simply there to check out what is on offer. Later into the lekking season they will be ready to actually breed.

*The chaos of a greyhen landing in the middle of the lek*

Leks only have one or two successful breeding males! Each year the hens will pretty much all breed with the same male. It is amazing to see them fly in and instantly know which male is the chosen one for the year.

*Morning light just illuminates these birds beauty*

*These birds really do inflict pain on each other*

Black grouse certainly know how to fight! With sharp beaks and claws, their battles during the lekking season can leave real marks. At the start of the season, the males are at their best — beautifully preened, glossy, and full of energy. By the end, many bear the scars of combat, with chunks missing from their faces and old wounds already healed. These fierce contests are all part of the struggle to impress the females.

Black grouse leks take place in the same spots year after year, making them one of the most reliable wildlife spectacles in the country. Why they return to these historic sites is still a mystery — the chosen places don’t appear to have any special features, yet generation after generation of birds instinctively return.