Black grouse have a very distinctive and well-recorded courtship ritual. Every dawn in the spring, male grouse begin competition with other males in hopes of attracting a hen to mate with. They will display to signal their territory and vigor by fanning out their elaborate lyre-shaped tails and inflating their necks on designated open ground called a lek. Their song consists of a long, dove-like bubbling coo or murmur. Black grouse hens visiting the lek decide the overall healthiest male, though not all females may arrive at every lek.