Lekking is a curious variation on promiscuous mating. This word of Swedish derivation, describes a pattern of mating behaviour seen only in a small number of birds around the world.
A lek is a gathering of males for the purposes of competitive mating display. Leks assemble before and during the breeding season, on a daily basis. The same group of males meet at a traditional place and take up the same individual positions on an arena, each occupying and defending a small territory or court. Intermittently or continuously, they spar individually with their neighbors or put on extravagant visual or aural displays (mating "dances" or gymnastics, plumage displays, vocal challenges, etc.). Females come to these arenas to choose mates when the males' hierarchy has become established, and preferentially mate with the dominants in the centre. The term was originally used most commonly for Black Grouse (orrlek) and for Capercaillie (tjäderlek). In Europe there are only four species of birds with this kind of display – Black Grouse, Cappercaillie, Ruff and Great Snipe.

Together with Henrik Karlsson from Kalmar I try to photograph "lekking birds" as a small project and more pictures of these species will hopefully turn up later on.....