Red Grouse on Handa

A few moments of excitement as I and another photographer saw this on the Island of Handa in Scotland, for we thought we were seeing a very rare endangered Caparcaillie which in many ways is similar. My further research on describing it here for you brought it to be in fact a male Red grouse.
‘The red grouse is a medium-sized game bird. It has a short tail and a lightly hook-tipped bill. It is reddish-brown, with its legs and feet covered in pale feathers. Birds breed in the UK in the uplands of the north and west and are resident all year round, travelling very little in their lives. The population is declining, perhaps linked to diseases and the loss of heather moorland.’ RSPB

Enjoy full screen.