Western Capercaillie, one of my photo goals 2012

This Western Capercaillie gallery is one of my personal photo missions this year, 2012. The goal was to take some decent pictures of the Western Capercaillie’s mating display.

The Western Capercaillie is found across Europe and Asia and it is renowned for its mating display. I thought I would have to travel far to succed with this photo mission. Instead, I was extremely lucky to find a male displaying not far from home.

It is the largest member of the grouse family and the largest known specimen, recorded in captivity, had a weight of 7.2 kg. I hope you understand that this is a massive bird. We say that this is the heaviest bird species in Sweden.

I looked for this handsome brute more than once and you can read about those adventures if you just follow the links below to the three different blog posts. I thought it was a great pleasure to be able to find and take photos of the bird this easily.

My first meeting with the Western Capercaillie

You can read more about the first meeting with the Western Capercaillie by reading the blog post Mission accomplished.

The second meeting was a pure adrenaline rush. If you want to look at the pictures and read about the meeting then read the blog post Back at the scene.

My third meeting was on a cold and snowy morning at the start of April. You can read and look at the pictures from that meeting by reading the blog post target Guiding.

Feel free to look through this gallery and don´t miss the blog posts as they have more pictures of the Western Capercaillie. I hope you like what you see and if you ever get the chance to witness a displaying Western Capercaillie then take the chance. It is not just enjoyable to watch, but also to hear.

Photo Gallery: A Tuesday after work