Critter Corner - American Woodcock
(Scolopax minor)

DID YOU KNOW:

The American woodcock's patterns of brown, black, gray and rust help it hide on the forest floor. 

EATING HABITS:

Woodcocks can eat up to their own body weight in earthworms in 24 hours.  They often stamp their feet by rocking back and forth to stir up earthworm activity and then plunge their long bills into the ground to snatch a worm.

THE YOUNG:

After mating, the female woodcock makes a depression in the soft ground with her body and lines it with dead leaves and places twigs around the rim.  Though the nest is usually in an open area on the woodland floor, it is well hidden because the mother woodcock rarely leaves the nest and because the eggs are cinnamon colored.

HABITAT (HOME):

American woodcocks live through the eastern United States, spending the summer in the north raising their babies and migrating to the south in the winter.  They live in moist woodlands where earthworms are plentiful.

DEFENSIVE HABITS:

If a predator is nearby, mother woodcock will fly up in the air fluttering and come back down pretending to be injured.  She lures the predator away from her young and then circles back to her family.

UNUSUAL FACTS:

• The male woodcock puts on an amazing flight display to attract females and to declare his territory.  He flies in wide circles about 200 feet in the air as his wings give off a whistling sound.  He then descents back to earth in a zigzag pattern, almost looking life a leaf falling from a tree.

• A woodcock's large eyes are further back on the head than most bird's, allowing it to see what is approaching from behind.

 To learn more about American Woodcocks

(Photo credits: All photos from Fish and Wildlife Agency)