Secure Shopping
| American
Woodcock Male woodcocks use flight displays to establish and maintain territories and court females. Displays are most common during spring mornings when males perform in small clearings for 50 to 60 minutes, and during evenings for 30 to 40 minutes. The male begins his display on the ground, where he produces nighthawk-like “peent” notes about once every 10 to 20 seconds. After launching himself into the air, he begins to fly in a wide circle, wings twittering, until he has climbed 200 to 300 feet in the air. The twittering stops at the zenith of his flight, when he begins singing a series of varied chirping notes. He continues the song as he descends in an erratic zigzag flight to the ground, often landing close to the spot where he started. He then resumes the “peent” calls. Chases between rival males are common in the small clearings where males usually display. If a male succeeds in attracting a female, he approaches her with wings held aloft; then the pair may mate. Males are promiscuous, mating with more than one female and taking no interest in care of the young. American Woodcocks build their nests on the ground in open woods or brushy fields. The female usually lays four spotted, blotched, pale buff eggs in a scraped-out hollow lined with dead leaves and other plant material. While incubating, the female often remains on the nest, even when closely approached. She leads her young from the nest soon after hatching. Within a couple of days, the young begin to feed in the manner of adults. They can fly weakly at about two weeks of age. Although they are fully grown when 25 days old, they stay with their mother for six to eight weeks. The woodcock diet is about 75 percent earthworms. A woodcock finds worms by probing in soft mud with its long sensitive bill. It forages for insects in leaf litter and it may eat small amounts of seeds when earthworms are scarce. With the first hard frosts, southbound migration begins. Woodcocks leave at dusk as flocks of a few to 50 birds begin to fly at low altitudes toward their winter homes in the southeast coastal plain and along the Gulf Coast. Woodcocks show a strong tendency to return to the same sites in summer and winter. Northward migration begins as early as February when birds move into areas where the ground has thawed. Some males begin displaying before they have reached their breeding grounds. American Woodcocks breed from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the eastern edge of the Great Plains. American Woodcock Range Map The American Woodcock has short, rounded wings and tail, short legs, and very long tapered bill stemming from a thick base. Sexes are similar, although females tend to be a little larger. The upperparts are clad in variegated black, brown and gray; the breast and belly are uniformly pale rusty, as are the wing linings. The large rounded head has three broad dark crossbands separated by narrow rufous bands. The large dark eyes are set far to the rear and high on the head, giving woodcocks good vision even when probing in the soil. Visit Shaw
Creek Bird Supply and see our
selection of Bird
Houses, Bird
Feeders, Hummingbird
Feeders, Heated
Bird Baths & Audubon
Binoculars |