How to Identify aAmerican Woodcock
Scolopax minor · 9.8–12.2 in (25–31 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Intricately mottled dead-leaf brown, black and gray with a cinnamon belly and a very long straight bill. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical in plumage but noticeably larger.
Male photo: Rhododendrites / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Field marks
- Extremely long straight bill on a plump body
- Eyes placed high and far back on the head
- Dead-leaf camouflage of black, brown and gray bars
- Short legs and almost no visible neck
Similar species
What it sounds like
A buzzy, nasal "peent" from the ground, followed in display by a twittering of the wings.
Behaviour that gives it away
The male’s spring display spirals hundreds of feet up on twittering wings, then zigzags back down to the exact spot he left.
Habitat & range
Young moist woodland, thickets and field edges in the East.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in eastern and central North America you are, it is present all year and a summer visitor that arrives to breed.
What it eats
Earthworms, probed from soft soil with a flexible bill tip.
Did you know?
Its eyes sit so far back that it has full 360-degree vision, and can watch for danger overhead while its bill is buried in the mud.
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