• Loss of habitat mosaic. Black Grouse favour a patchwork quilt of farmland adjacent to moor and forest and they need a sweep of suitable countryside to sustain their population.
• Over-grazing. High densities of sheep eat out ground cover, thus reducing the abundance of caterpillars thet grouse chicks need.
• Changes in forestry. Black grouse like the ground cover in young plantations but as these develop into solid conifer thickets they tend to leave
• Increased mortality. Because they are now more common, crows, foxes, stoats and some birds of prey cause a high annual loss.

Habitat

The black grouse is mainly a bird of moorland margins and upland woods. It requires a variety of habitats, which are related to the seasonal variation in its food supply. This normally includes an open patchwork of young or widely spaced trees with a well-developed understorey of heather and bilberry.

Leks

The black grouse has a spectacular communal breeding system. At dawn in spring males (blackcock) congregate on traditional display grounds (referred to as a lek). Here they stake out small patches of ground on to which they entice females for mating. Females (greyhens) are cryptically coloured in mottle brown and lay their eggs in thick ground vegetation within a kilometre or so of the lek. After hatching they take their broods to feed among the tall grasses, rushes and heathland shrubs where they feed first on insects then buds, flowers and seeds. Most black grouse chicks hatch in mid-June and they remain as a family covey until September. Young males tend to reside close to the home lek whereas females often disperse several kilometres to other areas of suitable habitat where there are other populations of black grouse.

Welsh Black Grouse Recovery Project.

In June 1999 RSPB Cymru launched the Welsh Black Grouse Recovery Project. Along with the participation of Countryside Council for Wales Tir Gofal scheme and the Forestry Commission Woodland Grant Scheme a proposal was put forward to reduce sitka spruce density to 10% cover within a 43ha coupe at Cannon Farm, manage 80ha of heather moorland and re-wet areas by blocking forest drains and ditches.

The aims of the Cannon Farm black grouse project were linked to the overall aims of the Welsh Black Grouse Recovery Project: to stabilise the black grouse population and in the long term increase their numbers within the Llanbrynmair key area by favourable habitat management.

A survey of Black Grouse in Wales in 2002 recorded 243 lekking males, an 85% increase on the 1997 population. This increase occurred principally in areas where forest and heather management was undertaken. The project aims to increase the numbers in these core areas and to reverse the contraction in range.

For details of the Black Grouse project at Cannon Farm click on the link. (291kb .pdf)