Field Guide to Birds of North America
American Woodcock
General
American Woodcock: Medium-sized but unusually stocky sandpiper with buff-brown underparts and dark-streaked gray-brown upperparts. Head shows black bars rather than the stripes of most other sandpipers. Eyes are black and very large; bill is dull yellow with a black tip and is long and stout. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is duller overall.
Range and Habitat
American Woodcock: Found in open woodlands and moist overgrown fields from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast.
Listen to Call
Voice Text
"peent"
Interesting Facts
- The elaborate courtship ritual of the male American Woodcock may be repeated as long as four months running, sometimes continuing even after females have already hatched their brood and left the nest.
- In this species, there is no pair bond and the male provides no parental care. Nor is there any evidence of a social dominance hierarchy.
- These birds are seldom seen during the day. They are typically active during times of low light such as dawn, dusk, moonlit nights and sometime on cloudy days. They also migrate at night, singly or in small, loose flocks.
- A group of woodcocks has many collective nouns, including a "cord", "fall", "flight", "plump", and "rush" of woodcocks.
Author
|
Family
|
Species
Scolopax minor
|
Length11
Inches
|
Wingspan18
Inches
|
American Woodcock
American Woodcock: Medium, stocky sandpiper with buff-brown underparts and dark-streaked gray-brown upperparts. Head shows black bars rather than the stripes of most other sandpipers. Eyes are black and very large; bill is dull yellow with a black tip and is long and stout. Pale gray legs and feet.
● Song: "peent"
● Foraging & Feeding: American Woodcock: Feeds by probing in soft soil with its long sensitive bill. Eats primarily earthworms but also burrowing insect larvae. May rock gently back and forth while feeding, a behavior that is thought to startle worms so they move.
● Breeding & nesting: American Woodcock: Famous for the male's elaborate courtship flights that are called "sky dances." Every evening and sunrise for months, males gather in open wet fields to launch into high twisting flights with musical twittering notes and chirping calls. Females visit these dancing grounds and mate with one of the males, then nest solitarily on the ground in overgrown fields. Lays four buff or red brown eggs spotted with brown and purple. Incubation is 20-22 days, and chicks leave the nest within hours of hatching, and start feeding themselves after the first week.
● Similar species: American Woodcock: Wilson's Snipe lacks rufous hues and has heavily marked underparts, head stripes are lengthwise.
Flight Pattern
If flushed suddenly from the ground the woodcock will rise vertically with noisy twittering wings, then fly off with rapid, zigzagging flight. Courtship flight involves an upward spiraling flight then rapid fluttering descent.
|
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
|
Population
|
MigrationMigratory
|
Weight6.2
Ounces
|