Around the first half of May in Lapland, the Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) gather in the forests in places called "lek", where the males will start their courting to impress the females. They adopt the typical behaviour that you can see in the video: tail feathers up and fanned, head straight up, and producing this characteristics call.
The display usually starts in the late evening hours, until early morning. It is imperative then to be hidden in order not to disturb the process. If scared by human presence, the birds will simply leave the area and might never come back.
I was lucky enough to spend the entire night (12 hours!) in the tent that was set up there by my friend Jouni of Arctic Camera: arcticcamera.fi/
Gear used in this video:
- Canon R5
- Canon 1DX Mark III
- Canon RF 15-35 IS
- Canon EF 600mm f/4 Mark II
- Canon EF 100-400 Mark II
- Canon extenders EF 1.4x and 2x
- Rode Video Micro microphone
- Rode Video NTG microphone
- Jobu Algonquin tripod
- F-Stop Shinn backpack
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- my website: rez-photography.com
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Music licensed through www.epidemicsound.com/