Black grouse — Hautes-Vosges

About this spectacle

In the high moorlands and forest edges of the Hautes-Vosges, the black grouse lek is one of France's most atmospheric dawn spectacles. Male black grouse — glossy blue-black birds with vivid red wattles and lyre-shaped tails — gather on open boggy clearings before first light to perform their bubbling, cooing display called 'rookooing'. The air fills with soft, almost liquid calls as males fan their tails, strut and spar, while females watch from the margins. Observers crouched in a hide in the cold mountain air can witness territorial skirmishes and elaborate courtship dances against a backdrop of mist-draped ridgelines. The Hautes-Vosges massif, with its high chaumes (subalpine grasslands) and peat bogs, supports one of the last viable black grouse populations in France. The spectacle is brief — typically confined to the hour around dawn — making it a true prize for wildlife watchers willing to rise long before sunrise on a cold spring morning.

When to go

Apr — Oct, peak Apr — May

Getting there

Nearest airport: MLH. Nearest city: Colmar.

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