American
Woodcock
CAmerican Woodcock
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Scolopacidae
Genus:Scolopax
Species:Scolopax minor
|
|
TAXONOMY
The American Woodcock is from the Order
Charadriiformes, which contains a wide range of small to
medium-large shorebirds. It is in the Family
Scolopacidae, which also entails many species of
sandpipers, snipes, woodcocks, and turnstones.
The American Woodcock is a medium sized
bird, with a typical length of about 28 centimeters and
an average mass of about 200 grams. Females are often
larger than males. There is a vast assortment of colors
on the head and mantle for the bird, including brown,
gray, black, tan, yellow, and white in a sort of
camouflage pattern. There is much less variation on
their breast and flanks, with only shades of tan/brown
and white. They have a long beak and black patches on
the back of the head. Their eyes are solid black with a
white eye-ring surrounding. The color of their feet
resembles that of their beaks, but lighter in color.
HABITAT/DIET
The American Woodcock is typically found in forests
containing openings, so young forests and old farmland with forests
in the surrounding area is ideal habitat for the Woodcock. Males prefer the
open areas for singing in the spring. The bird tends to be found
close to water or near moist, wet areas, making a river or stream
surrounded by forest a good place to look.
Eighty percent of their diet is comprised of
earthworms, however, they also consume other invertebrate insects
and a small amount of plant material such as seeds.
BEHAVIOR
The American Woodcock is polygynous, where a male may
have one or more female mates, so no pair bonds are formed. Males sing in
open display areas, producing a song that sounds like “peent.” They
tend to use the same peenting grounds year after year because this may lead to
less conflict between males over territories. Wing and tail feather
displays are also an important part in the male’s efforts to attract
a mate they will routinely during their display fly upwards in a
loose spiral giving chirping calls and making whistling sounds with
their wings and then descend in a tight spiral back to their
peenting grounds. Females may visit several different males/territories
before deciding upon a mate. After mating males do not give any paternal care to
offspring; in fact, they will continue to try and attract mates
after the female has left the peenting grounds.When searching for food, American Woodcock tend
to walk along the ground, keeping their bills close to the soil. The
bird tends to flush vertically when inside a wooded area, producing
a whistle-like sound similar to the sound they make while attracting
a mate.
WHERE TO FIND THEM
Woodcocks are difficult to find in the daytime hours,
but the best locations to search for them would be in wooded areas
or shores along Lake Erie, particularly near the Pennsylvania
border. They are found here in WNY in the summer months, as they
migrate south in the fall and return back north in the spring.
|