Scottish birds are on the cusp of extinction

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scotland’s capercaillies are in trouble; their numbers are falling relentlessly and, if effective measures aren’t taken, extinction looms, writes Richard Collins

This largest member of the grouse family is an impressive creature. The turkey-sized male has dark plumage, a cocked-up fanlike tail, a red spot over the eye and ‘stockings’ covering its legs. The female is much smaller and duller.

The name ‘capercaillie’ comes from Scots Gaelic. It is usually translated as ‘cock of the wood’ but ‘caper’ could also mean ‘horse’, as in the Irish ‘capall’, while ‘caillie’, a ‘wood’, is the equivalent of ‘coill’. Gordon D’Arcy observed that the bird’s calls resemble the sound of a walking horse.