Wood Cock

Wood Cock
© Chris Wood | Macaulay Library North Carolina, December 30, 2010
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Plump, short-legged and short-necked shorebird with a long, straight bill. Note cinnamon underparts and gray collar.
On spring nights, males perform conspicuous displays, giving a buzzy peent call, and launching into the air.
Stocky, short-necked shorebird with a long bill that blends in well with vegetation. Note gray stripes down back.
Chunky, short-legged shorebird of forests. Walks along the ground in a rocking pattern while probing for earthworms.
Found in forests, forest edges, old fields, and wet meadows of eastern North America.
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American Woodcocks are plump, short-legged shorebirds with very long, straight bills. Their large heads, short necks, and short tails give them a bulbous look on the ground and in flight. The wings are broad and rounded compared to most other shorebirds.
Bigger and plumper than a Killdeer; slightly smaller than a Rock Pigeon.
They are well camouflaged in light brown, black, buff, and gray-brown tones. The face is buffy, the crown blackish. They are light gray across the neck and back, with dark-and-light patterned shoulders and brown wings. The underparts are buffy to almost orange.
American Woodcock spend most of their time hidden in fields and on the forest floor, where they probe for earthworms. They often rock back and forth while walking along the ground. On spring nights, males perform very conspicuous displays, giving a buzzy peent call, then launching into the air. Their erratic display flight includes a distinctive, twittering flight sound and ends with a steep dive back to the ground.
Look for American Woodcock in forests, forest edges, old fields, and wet meadows of eastern North America.
Sandpipers and Allies (Order: Charadriiformes, Family: Scolopacidae )
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American Woodcock Scolopax minor ORDER: Charadriiformes FAMILY: Scolopacidae
Year-round Breeding Migration Nonbreeding
Other Names Chocha Americana (Spanish) Bécasse d'Amérique (French)

The male woodcock’s evening display flights are one of the magical natural sights of springtime in the East. He gives buzzy peent calls from a display area on the ground, then flies upward in a wide spiral. As he gets higher, his wings start to twitter. At a height of 200–350 feet the twittering becomes intermittent, and the bird starts to descend. He zigzags down, chirping as he goes, then lands silently (near a female, if she is present). Once on the ground, he resumes peenting and the display starts over again.
Wouldn’t it be useful to have eyes in the back of your head? American Woodcocks come close—their large eyes are positioned high and near the back of their skull. This arrangement lets them keep watch for danger in the sky while they have their heads down probing in the soil for food.
The conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote that the woodcock’s mesmerizing sky dances were “a refutation of the theory that the utility of a game bird is to serve as a target, or to pose gracefully on a slice of toast.” His writing helped spur the mid-twentieth century conservation movement.
Some males display at several singing grounds and mate with multiple females. The female often visits four or more singing grounds before nesting, and she may keep up these visits even while she cares for her young. The male gives no parental care, and continues to display long after most females have laid eggs.
Young woodcocks leave the nest a few hours after hatching, but for their first week they depend on their mother for food. They start to probe in dirt at three or four days after hatching.
The woodcock is also known as the timberdoodle, Labrador twister, night partridge, and bog sucker.
The American Woodcock probes the soil with its bill to search for earthworms, using its flexible bill tip to capture prey. The bird walks slowly and sometimes rocks its body back and forth, stepping heavily with its front foot. This action may make worms move around in the soil, increasing their detectability. The oldest American Woodcock on record was 11 years, 4 months old when it was shot in Wisconsin in 1982.

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Superbly camouflaged against the leaf litter, the brown-mottled American Woodcock walks slowly along the forest floor, probing the soil with its long bill in search of earthworms. Unlike its coastal relatives, this plump little shorebird lives in young forests and shrubby old fields across eastern North America. Its cryptic plumage and low-profile behavior make it hard to find except in the springtime at dawn or dusk, when the males show off for females by giving loud, nasal peent calls and performing dazzling aerial displays.
Woodcocks are easiest to find at dusk in the springtime, when the male performs a marvelous display flight, or “sky dance.” It can be hard at first to locate the bird in dim light, so listen for the distinctive, buzzy peent call given at fairly short intervals. He intersperses this call, given from the ground, with his spiraling display flights. In the air the bird gives musical chirps and makes a twittering sound as air passes through his wingtips. Displays continue well into the night, so if you hear this noise be patient, track it to its source, and see if you can catch sight of the male as he plummets back to earth to resume his peent calls.
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Sandpipers and Allies (Order: Charadriiformes, Family: Scolopacidae )
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from American Woodcock )

^ Jump up to: a b BirdLife International (2020). " Scolopax minor " . IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020 : e.T22693072A182648054. doi : 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22693072A182648054.en . Retrieved 13 November 2021 .

^ The American Woodcock Today | Woodcock population and young forest habitat management . Timberdoodle.org. Retrieved on 2013-04-03.

^ Cooper, T. R. & K. Parker (2009). American woodcock population status, 2009. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Laurel, Maryland.

^ Jump up to: a b c d Kaufman, Kenn (1996). Lives of North American Birds . Houghton Mifflin, pp. 225–226, ISBN 0618159886 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Sheldon, William G. (1971). Book of the American Woodcock . University of Massachusetts.

^ Jump up to: a b c Kelley, James; Williamson, Scot & Cooper, Thomas, eds. (2008). American Woodcock Conservation Plan: A Summary of and Recommendations for Woodcock Conservation in North America.

^ Smith, Christopher (2000). Field Guide to Upland Birds and Waterfowl . Wilderness Adventures Press, pp. 28–29, ISBN 1885106203 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Keppie, D. M. & R. M. Whiting, Jr. (1994). American Woodcock ( Scolopax minor ) , The Birds of North America.

^ "American Woodcock Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology" . www.allaboutbirds.org . Retrieved 2020-09-27 .

^ Jones, Michael P.; Pierce, Kenneth E.; Ward, Daniel (2007). "Avian vision: a review of form and function with special consideration to birds of prey". Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine . 16 (2): 69. doi : 10.1053/j.jepm.2007.03.012 .

^ Amazing Bird Records . Trails.com (2010-07-27). Retrieved on 2013-04-03.

^ Sepik, G. F. and E. L. Derleth (1993). Habitat use, home range size, and patterns of moves of the American Woodcock in Maine. in Proc. Eighth Woodcock Symp. (Longcore, J. R. and G. F. Sepik, eds.) Biol. Rep. 16, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C.

^ Ohio Ornithological Society (2004). Annotated Ohio state checklist Archived 2004-07-18 at the Wayback Machine .

^ Jump up to: a b O'Brien, Michael; Crossley, Richard & Karlson, Kevin (2006). The Shorebird Guide . Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pp.444–445, ISBN 0618432949 .

^ Mann, Clive F. (1991). "Sunda Frogmouth Batrachostomus cornutus carrying its young" (PDF) . Forktail . 6 : 77–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-08-28.

^ Wasser, D. E.; Sherman, P. W. (2010). "Avian longevities and their interpretation under evolutionary theories of senescence" . Journal of Zoology . 280 (2): 103. doi : 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00671.x .

^ Henninger, W.F. (1906). "A preliminary list of the birds of Seneca County, Ohio" (PDF) . Wilson Bulletin . 18 (2): 47–60.

^ the Woodcock Management Plan . Timberdoodle.org. Retrieved on 2013-04-03.

^ Paul Y. Burns (June 13, 2008). "Leslie L. Glasgow" . lsuagcdenter.com . Retrieved October 21, 2014 .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scolopax minor .
Sandpipers ( family : Scolopacidae)

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes

Scolopacidae (Numeniinae–Limosinae–Arenariinae)
Scolopacidae (Tringinae–Scolopacinae)
The American woodcock ( Scolopax minor ), sometimes colloquially referred to as the timberdoodle , the bogsucker , the hokumpoke , and the Labrador twister , [2] is a small shorebird species found primarily in the eastern half of North America . Woodcocks spend most of their time on the ground in brushy, young-forest habitats, where the birds' brown, black, and gray plumage provides excellent camouflage .

Because of the male woodcock's unique, beautiful courtship flights, the bird is welcomed as a harbinger of spring in northern areas. It is also a popular game bird , with about 540,000 killed annually by some 133,000 hunters in the U.S. [3]

The American woodcock is the only species of woodcock inhabiting North America. [4] Although classified with the sandpipers and shorebirds in Family Scolopacidae, the American woodcock lives mainly in upland settings. Its many folk names include timberdoodle, bogsucker, night partridge, brush snipe, hokumpoke, and becasse. [5]

The population of the American woodcock has fallen by an average of slightly more than 1% annually since the 1960s. Most authorities attribute this decline to a loss of habitat caused by forest maturation and urban development.

In 2008, wildlife biologists and conservationists released an American Woodcock Conservation Plan presenting figures for the acreage of early successional habitat that must be created and maintained in the U.S. and Canada to stabilize the woodcock population at current levels, and to return it to 1970s densities. [6]

The American woodcock has a plump body, short legs, a large, rounded head, and a long, straight prehensile bill. Adults are 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm) long and weigh 5 to 8 ounces (140 to 230 g). [7] Females are considerably larger than males. [8] The bill is 2.5 to 2.75 inches (6.4 to 7.0 cm) long. [5] Wingspan ranges from 16.5 to 18.9 inches (42 to 48 cm). [9]

The plumage is a cryptic mix of different shades of browns, grays, and black. The chest and sides vary from yellowish-white to rich tans. [8] The nape of the head is black, with three or four crossbars of deep buff or rufous. [5] The feet and toes, which are small and weak, are brownish gray to reddish brown. [8]

Woodcocks have large eyes located high in the head, and their visual field is probably the largest of any bird, 360° in the horizontal plane and 180° in the vertical plane. [10]

The woodcock uses its long prehensile bill to probe in the soil for food, mainly invertebrates and especially earthworms. A unique bone-and-muscle arrangement lets the bird open and close the tip of its upper bill, or mandible, while it is sunk in the ground. Both the underside of the upper mandible and the long tongue are rough-surfaced for grasping slippery prey. [5]

Woodcocks inhabit forested and mixed forest-agricultural-urban areas east of the 98th Meridian. Woodcock have been sighted as far north as York Factory, Manitoba, east to Labrador and Newfoundland. In winter, they migrate as far south as the Gulf Coast States and Mexico. [8]

The primary breeding range extends from Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick) west to southeastern Manitoba, and south to northern Virginia, western North Carolina, Kentucky, northern Tennessee, northern Illinois, Missouri, and eastern Kansas. A limited number of woodcock breed as far south as Florida and Texas. The species may be expanding its distribution northward and westward. [8]

After migrating south in autumn, most woodcock spend the winter in the Gulf Coast and southeastern Atlantic Coast states. Some may remain as far north as southern Maryland, eastern Virginia, and southern New Jersey. The core of the wintering range centers on Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. [8] Based on the Christmas Bird Count results, winter concentrations are highest in the northern half of Alabama .

Woodcock eat mainly invertebrates, particularly earthworms ( Oligochaeta ). They do most of their feeding in places where the soil is moist. They forage by probing in soft soil in thickets, where they usually remain well-hidden from sight. Other items in the diet include insect larvae, snails, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, snipe flies , beetles, and ants. A small amount of plant food is eaten, mainly seeds. [8] Woodcock are crepuscular , being most active at dawn and dusk.

Woodcock migrate at night. They fly at low altitudes, individually or in small, loose flocks. Flight speeds of migrating birds have been clocked at 16 to 28 miles per hour (26 to 45 kilometers per hour). However, the slowest flight speed ever recorded for a bird, 5 miles per hour (8 kilometers per hour), was recorded for this species. [11] It is believed that woodcock orient visually using major physiographic features such as coastlines and broad river valleys. [8] Both the autumn and spring migrations are leisurely compared with the swift, direct migrations of many passerine birds.

In the North, woodcock begin to shift southward before ice and snow seal off their ground-based food supply. Cold fronts may prompt heavy southerly flights in autumn. Most woodcock start to migrate in October, with the major push from mid-October to early November. [12] Most individuals arrive on the wintering range by mid-December. The birds head north again in February. Most have returned to the northern breeding range by mid-March to mid-April. [8]

Migrating birds' arrival at and departure from the breeding range is highly irregular. In Ohio , for example, the earliest birds are seen in February, but the bulk of the population does not arrive until March and April. Birds start to leave for winter by September, but some remain until mid-November. [13]

In Spring, males occupy individual singing grounds, openings near brushy cover from which they call and perform display flights at dawn and dusk, and if the light levels are high enough on moonlit nights. The male's ground call is a short, buzzy peent . After sounding a series of ground calls, the male takes off and flies from 50 to 100 yards (46 to 91 m) into the air. He descends, zigzagging and banking while singing a liquid, chirping song. [8] This high spiralling flight produces a melodious twittering sound as air rushes through the male's outer primary wing feathers. [14]

Males may continue with their courtship flights for as many as four months running – sometimes continuing even after females have already hatched their broods and left the nest.

Females, known as hens, are attracted to the males' displays. A hen will fly in and land on the ground near a singing male. The male courts the female by walking stiff-legged and with his wings stretched vertically, and by bobbing and bowing. A male may mate with several females. The male woodcock plays no role in selecting a nest site, incubating eggs, or rearing young. In the primary northern breeding range, the woodcock may be the earliest ground-nesting species to breed. [8]

The hen makes a shallow, rudimentary nest on the ground in the leaf and twig litter, in brushy or young-forest cover usually within 150 yards (140 m) of a singing ground. [5] Most hens lay four eggs, sometimes one to three. Incubation takes 20 to 22 days. [4]

The down-covered young are precocial and leave the nest within a few hours of hatching. [8] The female broods her young and feeds them. When threatened, the fledglings usually take cover and remain motionless, attempting to escape detection by relying on their cryptic coloration. Some observers suggest that frightened young may cling to the body of their mother, who will then take wing and carry the young to safety. [15]

Woodcock fledglings begin probing for worms on their own a few days after hatching. They develop quickly and can make short flights after two weeks, can fly fairly well at three weeks, and are independent after about five weeks. [4]

The maximum lifespan of adult American woodcock in the wild is 8 years. [16]

American woodcock live in wet thickets, moist woods, and brushy swamps. [4] Ideal habitats feature early successional habitat and abandoned farmland mixed with forest. In late summer, some woodcock roost on the ground at night in large openings among sparse, patchy vegetation. [8]

It is not known how many woodcock were present in eastern North America before European settlement. Colonial agriculture, with its patchwork of family farms and open-range livestock grazing, probably supported healthy woodcock populations. [5]

The woodcock population remained high during the early and mid-twentieth century, after many family farms were abandoned as people moved to urban areas, and cropfields and pastures grew up in brush. In recent decades, those formerly brushy acres have become middle-aged and older forest, where woodcock rarely venture, or they have been covered with buildings and other human developments. Because its population has been declining, the American woodcock is considered a "species of greatest conservation need" in many states, triggering research and habitat-creation efforts in an attempt to boost woodcock populations.

Population trends have been measured through springtime Breeding Bird Surveys and, in the northern breeding range, springtime singing-ground surveys. [8] Data suggest that the woodcock population has fallen rangewide by an average of 1.1% yearly over the last four decades. [6]

The American woodcock is not considered globally threatened by the IUCN . It is more tolerant of deforestation than other woodcocks and snipes ; as long as some sheltered woodland remains for breeding, it can thrive even in regions that are mainly used for agriculture . [1] [17] The estimated population is 5 million, so it is the most common sandpiper in No
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