Reader Diane G., an avid birder, hasn’t, so far as I recall, sent any photos in, but she’s rectified that with today’s contribution: a video and a photo of the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor). Her notes:
It was an unexpected thrill to witness this guy’s foraging behavior, and I was extremely lucky to get a nice vid of it (if I do say so myself.
A brief introductory story:
When it comes to photography, I’m just a point-&-shooter; but I got pretty lucky in mid-April with a vid of an extremely secretive species. Most of us hear rather than see the American Woodcock, and then only during their spring breeding season when the male puts on a nocturnal show of loud “peenting” from the ground (Woodcocks never perch) followed by courtship flights, circling high in the sky with a loud chittering sound produced by wing-whir combined with some vocal chatter as well.
Otherwise these are birds of the forest floor, exquisitely camouflaged and furtive. I just happened to come across this individual on my way to a birding site; by using my car as a blind I was able to get pretty close, and captured this short video of their fascinating foraging style. They are famous for that rocking motion when they walk, although ornithologists are not yet certain as to its purpose. They have amazing bills which they can open underground by virtue of a flexible upper mandible. As you can see in the video they seem able to detect the presence of subsurface earthworms (their primary diet); this individual’s success rate per bill plunge was 100% during my observation. All in all, amazing little shorebirds!
Pete Dunne’s rather whimsical description of the Woodcock, from Pete Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion (p 244):
A plump, softball-sized, oval-shaped, long-billed, woodland shorebird–the only shorebird that inhabits the forest floor. Appears neckless, tailess, and short-legged (the head seems like a bump on the body), and overall resembles a meatloaf on a stick. In all plumages, upperparts are cloaked in an eye-defeating gray, black, and buff pattern that makes the bird melt into the forest floor. Underparts are orange buff. Overall the plumage is warm-toned, soft and cuddly, and devoid of any definable pattern. Standout features include the extremely long flesh-colored bill and the large black eyes set improbably high and rearward on the head. The expression is gentle.
In keeping with your “Where’s the Nightjar” series I thought you might like this “Where’s the Bittern” photo. It’s probably not as difficult a quiz but it is interesting how effective bird camouflage can be. This is a bird that was seen in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park recently
Well, now I’m undyingly envious, Diane. The American Woodcock is one of my ‘most wanted’ North American birds, right up there with the Northern Hawk-Owl and Swainson’s Warbler, so elite company. Lovely video and photograph!
The American Bittern does occur in my area, at least sometimes during the winter, so I’ve seen some, if not enough, of those. You got a fine bittern camo shot, Rob!
Thanks, Pete.
Swainson’s Warbler, eh? I’m not even gonna ask how many warblers you do have. 😀
(Afraid I have the Hawk-Owl, but I cheated–an Audubon trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I’m quite sure your list is full of my nemesis birds. A good daylight view of a woodcock was certainly one of them, till this guy fell into my lap.)
I think the most likely explanation for the rocking motion of Diane’s American Woodcock is that it is listening to Parliament.
Diane, excellent video. I have seen these guys in brushy areas of prairie and have been amazed how they blend in. Also was struck by the soft peach colored breast. Great you got so close to this one.
I’d like to mention to anyone reading this that they should try to experience the spring mating rituals of the woodcock at once in their lives. It is truly out of this world. It occurs at dusk so choosing a location where you are looking west helps a lot. Even then it helps to have good eyesight and good hearing, and you might only see a few rounds of the display before it gets too dark. Best scenario is to go with experienced birders your first time, because I think it would be nearly impossible to even notice otherwise, that is, if you don’t know what you are looking for or listening for.
Correction:
” …try to experience the spring mating rituals of the woodcock at least once in their lives.”
Many years ago, I went with a small group of students on a zoology field trip in Canada, in early spring. One evening, we heard some very odd-sounding frogs that seemed to be lurking as isolated individuals in a grassy field. Thinking we’d stumbled across some rare species, several of us spent a couple of hours trying to sneak up on them. Every time we got close to one, though, the call would stop, and we had no luck at all. Eventually we learned (with some embarrassment) that what we were stalking was not frogs at all, but woodcocks. It was too dark to see their mating display; never did get to see one of the little guys. Our frog identification skills did improve, but we did not get another chance to see the woodcocks.
Your froggy experience appears to have been a “woodcock hunt”, literally.
In ornithology class in college, one of the field trips had us getting our feet wet, looking for snipe in a marsh. At that relatively young age, I did not know the alternative meaning of the phrase “snipe hunt”, and did not know that a joke was being played on us by the prof and the TAs.
Another fun fact about woodcock is that they have an informal alternative name: timberdoodle.
Thanks, Jesse, and I so agree about the mating ritual. They’re still peenting out here but I haven’t caught a courtship flight this year. I think woodcocks are my harbinger of spring. 🙂
Woodcocks rock out to Daft Punk !!
What’s striking about that rocking motion is that the head stays motionless.
Nice work, Diane!
b&
That’s ’cause he’s in the groove, baby!!
Thanks, Ben!
Hate how the quality suffers on upload; it helps quite a bit to use the gear icon to choose a high-def setting.
Yeah, that head-stabilization is a cool if common phenomenon! I’m sure many have seen at least one of the chicken videos at the following site; there’s even a cat vid demonstrating the same behavior:
http://www.quora.com/How-do-chickens-keep-their-heads-in-a-fixed-location
Rob, you’ve captured that bittern-blending perfectly! How fortuitous that it had its eye on you as well. 🙂
One has been calling in a marsh about 30 minutes from me, attracting a slew of birders–such an unusual “song.” I was lucky enough to see a second bittern fly in toward the calling one the other night, but no photo ops so far.
Haha… in the vein of “eye-defeating” skillz, at first I read, “UnderPANTS are orange buff”! 🙂
Very nice video and write-up, Diane!
Could the rocking motion have anything to do with steadying/readying it for the plunge to nab an earthworm? Or perhaps spooking its prey a little to make it move and thereby making it more detectable? However, I can only imagine that a meatloaf on a stick would be quite unsteady on its feet. 🙂
The woodcock motion during foraging is not a rocking motion. The body moves up and down on a slightly diagonal line, but it appears to be a straight line. I have not seen any accompanying foot movement, but I wonder if this is related to behavior of other shorebirds like some plovers that vibrate a foot to disturb prey in the sand. I would go with Smokedpaprika’s second suggestion of disturbing earthworms into moving and being more detectable.
This spring it was very unusual that up to five woodcocks ate earthworms alongside robins in my yard for a few days and it was great fun to watch them.
Thanks, Smoke & Tess. And I believe you’re both on the right track regarding the bopping. Cornell’s Birds of North America site has this to say about it:
Your info about similar behavior in other shorebirds certainly supports the hypothesis, Tess.
And yes, I’d heard this spring was one for unusual woodcock behavior! Someone on my bird forum was also getting great pics of a lawn-foraging one. I believe the speculation regarding that unusual behavior had to do with the unusually long duration of the snowpack this year. At any rate, sure wish it had happened in my yard!
I am reminded of the great novel by Tarjei Vesaas The Birds, Fuglane, (1957) which features a woodcock.
Found it!
Heck, that was easy.