Meet Your Neighbors

American Woodcock:
Springtime Song and Dance

It’s late March. The sun has set. The robins and red-winged blackbirds have hushed. I’ve been waiting quietly in an open area near the edge of woods. Without prelude, a distinct buzzing call breaks the silence: “Peent! Peent!” The insect-like sound, similar to the call of a nighthawk, repeats from the ground 20 to 40 times, then stops. Moments later, a loud twittering takes its place, and the silhouette of what looks like a large, chubby hummingbird flies right past me and circles high into the sky, nearly disappearing into the twilight. A new noise — this time a chirping chortle — signals descent a few minutes later as the bird seesaws down to earth, dive-bombing the last 20 feet and landing where it started. On the ground and out of sight, it launches into a head-bopping floorshow, strutting back and forth. Soon, the peents are back, and the whole ritual repeats itself. On evenings when a full moon is shining, the bird will perform late into the night.

This grandiose performance is the mating dance of the male American woodcock, Scolopax minor. Repeated every night for several weeks in the spring, often with other males, it may be just as impressive to humans as to the female woodcock. Groups of nature lovers and birdwatchers head out to the trails every March and early April to watch this normally shy, elusive bird make a spectacle of itself.

Also known as the timberdoodle, bog sucker, and Labrador twister, the woodcock is a plump bird with almost no neck and slender legs. Elaborately feathered in a handsome tweed of tawny browns, glossy black, and cream, it measures 10 to 12 inches, including a 2.5-inch-long bill. A woodcock’s eyes are located far back on its head so that it can see predators while it’s feeding. Ear holes slightly in front of the eyes help locate its favorite food — earthworms — which make up about 80 percent of its diet. (The bird’s ears and eyes are so large, that its brain actually rests upside-down to accommodate them.) The flexible tip of its long bill — which reportedly can detect a slime trail up to 24 hours after a worm lays it down — allows it to grasp worms, beetles, larvae, seeds, and berries without opening its entire bill.

Although the American woodcock is classified as a shorebird, it stays inland for most of its life. It arrives in the Chicago Wilderness area every March after a four- to six-week journey from its winter home in the Deep South. Until the bird returns south in November, hikers may encounter it in our woodlands and shrubby fields.
Although females may occasionally join in on the sky dance, it’s more typical for them to be “called in” by the festivities, joining the male at the site of his floorshow. The pair then proceeds to a nesting site, and if the female woodcock is receptive, mating occurs. Males may display in several different locations, and they usually mate with more than one female. The female will lay eggs in a shallow depression on the ground and takes about six to eight weeks to raise the young.

American woodcock populations have slowly declined during the past 20 years. Although overhunting has been suspected, the cause is more likely a combination of habitat destruction and the lingering effects of banned pesticides. In addition, the low-flying woodcock collides with our large buildings in higher percentages than many other birds. The U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, a national effort headed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has identified the Chicago region as important for the species’ recovery. Habitat restoration here in the bird’s breeding territory could help the species as it recovers across the eastern United States and the Midwest.

Those wishing to see the woodcocks’ avian exhibition can join one of the many “woodcock walks” in spots such as Wolf Road Prairie in Westchester and The Hollows Conservation Area in Cary. (Consider reading Aldo Leopold’s oft-cited woodcock account, “Sky Dance,” in A Sand County Almanac before heading out.) Forest preserve naturalists also may be able to guide you to the perfect spot to view them on your own. It’s well worth an evening or two, and it may just become one of your spring rituals.

— Sabine Vorkoeper