Capercaillie counts in 2007

Capercaillie also did badly in 2007. Our brood survey indicated that only 15% of hens managed to rear chicks at an average of 0.3 chicks per hen. This was the worst breeding season for five years and the second poorest in the last 17 years. Poor productivity was associated with bad weather in June when the chicks were hatching. This productivity is far below the 0.6 chicks per hen needed to maintain a stable population (see Figure 1). However, recruitment from the relatively large numbers of young in 2006 appears to have been good and the number of adult capercaillie found during the counts was up on 2006 by more than 20 birds.

Figure 1. Capercaillie breeding success between 1991 and 2007 sampled from 10-20 forests per year in the Scottish Highlands The horizontal line at 0.6 indicates the estimated level of productivity required to maintain a stable population. * Apart from 2003 to 2007, capercaillie breeding success was derived from a different subset of forest areas each year.