American Woodcocks feeding, with video

 

An American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) works the mudflat, bill caked with mire. On July 12, Shauna and I made an early morning visit to a nearby hotspot, Glacier Ridge Metro Park in Union County, Ohio. We had visited this site a few days prior with the aim of shooting dragonflies in flight. That foray met with some success, but the bird life was so interesting that we focused on avifauna on the 7/12/2025 foray.

Especially notable were up to five American Woodcocks feeding out on the mudflat, sometimes venturing quite close. While I made the image above with my Canon 800mm f/5.6 (as with the others), I barely had to crop this photo and at times the bird wandered inside the 14-foot minimum focus distance of the lens. Needless to say, it was a wonderful opportunity to observe woodcocks busily feeding, and that's what we concentrated on.

A woodcock tugs a long, elastic worm from the muck. Sorry, I do not know the species or even group that the "worm" belongs to, but whatever they are there are plenty of them. We saw and photographed many such captures.

Apparently, no one is quite sure how woodcocks divine the location of subterranean worms. Visually? By sound or vibration? Rooting about in the mire with their sensitive bill tips? Probably a combination of these, and who knows whatever else, I would say.

Sometimes it would appear that a bird would spot something, move quickly towards it, plunge its bill into the soil, root around, and extract a worm. Other times the woodcock would clearly be engaged in exploratory probing, plunging its bill deep into the ground, searching with rapid sewing machine-like motions. Then, apparently when prey was detected, it would freeze for a bit, and we knew it was likely that a worm would soon be pulled above ground.

Woodcocks can move the upper bill mandible independently, allowing the bird to open the tip and grasp objects under the ground and sight unseen. The terminal end of the upper mandible is also beset with sensitive nerve endings, aiding the bird in tactile sensory recognition.

I was fascinated by this woodcock duo and spent much time keeping tabs on them. Photos were tough due to the distance, but documentary shots such as the one above were possible. Note that the just captured worm is being held in the bills of both birds! This was not an anomaly, I saw the same scene play out at least a dozen times and got images of probably a half-dozen different episodes of this joint feeding behavior.

Virtually all of the literature that I have seen describes the American Woodcock as completely solitary, at nearly all times of year. The pair only forms a brief union to mate, then the male goes his own way. Apparently the same is true for feeding behavior, and the other woodcocks that were present did maintain good distances from one another,

One might wonder if one of the birds is a juvenile, and the other the mother. But that would seem highly unlikely. Woodcock chicks can forage for food within 3-4 days of hatching, and maternal care ends after a week or so, apparently. By this point in their development, the parental bond should be long broken.

I wonder if it might be some sort of communal feeding strategy in that the participation of both birds ups the odds of finding food. The two birds rarely got any further apart than the distance in that photo, and often both of them had their bills buried in the same immediate vicinity. As near as I could tell, only one bird would eat the worm - they never appeared to pull it apart so that each got a piece. And both birds captured food, not just one.

Anyway, it's normally about impossible to watch feeding woodcocks in typical brushy/grassy/otherwise thickly vegetated habitat, so there may be feeding strategies that we don't know about.

Or perhaps I'm just missing something obvious. If you can shed light on this behavior, please leave a comment.

Finally, here's a video of a feeding American Woodcock, as it sashays about with its distinctive, comical gait.

American Woodcock

I found myself at Springville Marsh State Nature Preserve in Seneca County, Ohio, at the crack of dawn yesterday. This 267-acre preserve is about all that remains of the former Big Spring Prairie that stretched from Carey to Fostoria. This spring-fed prairie must have been an interesting place before it was mostly obliterated by agriculture. The prairie-fen arced over about ten miles - roughly in the shape of a horseshoe - and was up to a mile in width. It covered parts of Hancock, Seneca, and Wyandot counties.

Springville Marsh still protects a number of rare plants and vestiges of unusual habitat. It's quite birdy, both in migration and during the breeding season. Among many more common species, I tallied Marsh Wren, Yellow-breasted Chat, and a bit surprisingly, Blue Grosbeak. Although I guess I wouldn't be too surprised to turn one of these spectacular southern grosbeaks up anywhere, anymore. They are spreading northward like wildfire.

At one point, I turned a corner on the boardwalk to encounter this fine American Woodcock. He didn't react and allowed me some nice imagery. It was only when I slowly started dropping to the boardwalk, the better to get on its level, that the bird flushed. The woodcock is a breeder, and the rich soft peaty soils of the "marsh" are an ideal substrate for probing invertebrates with that long bill. 
 

American Woodcock, and Willow Flycatcher

As this blog's title does have birds in it, and the feathered crowd has been absentee here for some time, I thought it high time to rectify that situation.

Mainly, though, I just wanted to go out and try to photograph (I was going to say "shoot", but I've had people take that the wrong way :-) ) birds. They are still probably my favorite part of the natural world, my entrée into biology, and are almost always challenging and rewarding subjects to photograph.

So, this morning at the crack of dawn, I headed to a nearby metro park, Glacier Ridge, and spent a few hours birding/photographing. This time of year, at least on a clear sunny day like today, it's best to be out REALLY early. By 9 am or so, the light is already getting rather harsh and constrasty.

An American Woodcock, Scolopax minor, poses in a bed of Water-purslane, Ludwigia palustris, in a boggy opening on the edge of a marsh. There were three, a family unit no doubt. And a woodcock that's just sitting and preening - and at close range to boot - is decidedly not a difficult subject to shoot.

This trio is quite tame and utterly unintimidated by the myriad walkers that pass by nearly overhead on an elevated wooden boardwalk. A Virginia Rail was nearby, also at rest, but it was directly in line with the bright sun. I just admired it, rather than take photos that I'd just later delete.

For me, watching birds is as much fun as shooting them. This is undoubtedly due to my history as a hardcore birder LONG before getting serious about trying to capture bird images. I've been watching and learning about birds since I was probably 6-7 years old and for the majority of my life I just watched (and listened). Trying to make serious bird images has increased my knowledge of these subjects tremendously though - especially in regards to behavior. While I've always been more of a watcher than a listing ticker, sitting in one spot sometimes for hours, awaiting a good situation to unfold, forces the observer/photographer to notice in great detail the bird's actions and behavior, as well as that of many other incidental animals.

A Willow Flycatcher, Empidonax traillii, sneezes out its snappy little song while living up to its name. The bird sings from atop a willow, Salix ssp. Until 1973, it was called Traill's Flycatcher, but long before that people had noticed two important things about "Traill's" Flycatcher. There was a distinct partitioning of habitat within the "species", with one group favoring willow-dominated wetlands and low-lying ground, and the other more northerly group inhabiting very wet alder-dominated wetlands. And their songs and calls differed distinctly. Roger Tory Peterson was among those that discerned these differences early on.

In 1973, "Traill's" Flycatcher was split into two species: this one, and the Alder Flycatcher, E. alnorum. While Thomas Traill - a friend of John James Audubon and for whom Audubon named the bird - lost his honorific, the bird was correctly cleaved into two. I've become quite familiar with these species, as I see/hear scores of Willow Flycatchers throughout the Midwest every year. My regular late spring trips to northern Michigan, where Alder Flycatcher rules, have given me a good understanding of that species. In addition to habitat preferences, the songs are quite different. The Willow delivers a sneezy Fitz-BEW! as its primary song. The Alder gives a distinctive Free-beer! with a descending pattern. Once one is familiar with these songs, it's easy to tell them apart. Alder Flycatcher actually reminds me more of a small Olive-sided Flycatcher, and even gives pip-pip call notes similar to that larger species. It also often has richer olive tones reminiscent of the Olive-sided.

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTE: On this excursion, I took my Canon 400 f/2.8 II (and 5DIV body) as I expected to mostly be working in pretty close range to my subjects. In my backpack were the Canon 1.4x III and 2x III teleconverters. So, in short order I could shoot with a 400mm, 560mm, or 800mm. The Willow Flycatcher was fairly far and atop a 20-foot willow, favoring a singing perch that he constantly returned to. The image above was made using the 2x teleconverter. This lens is one of few that I can consistently get good results with the 2x. It hardly seems to slow focus acquisition, locks on target instantly, and produces a very sharp image. 2x teleconverters cause the loss of two stops, but since the lens is an f/2.8, adding the converter only drops it to an f/5.6 lens. I generally want to shoot birds stopped down to at least f/5.6 anyway, and at smaller apertures if light permits. While adding a 2x teleconverter may seem like a relatively inexpensive way to double the magnification of your lens, I would try one out before buying. I've had unsatisfying results with most lens. This 400mm is the only one I've used where the 2x really shines and I have no qualms about using it with this lens. I also have Canon's neat little 300mm f/4 lens, and the 2x works pretty well on that, but the lens becomes an f/8 minimum aperture, and the teleconverter definitely slows focus on what is already a fairly slow to focus lens. For wildlife photographers able and willing to shell out a chunk of money, I'd highly recommend the 400mm f/2.8 II (I understand the new version III is even better). Because it pairs so well with Canon teleconverters, the lens offers tremendous diversity.

Woodcock's looks, gait laughable, but courtship display showy

The American woodcock courts females with dazzling aerial displays

COLUMBUS DISPATCH

March 20, 2016

NATURE

Jim McCormac

"I'd rather be a little weird than all boring."
— Rebecca McKinsey (perhaps speaking for the woodcock)

There is nothing normal about an American woodcock. Even its nicknames bear this out: bogsucker, Labrador twister, timberdoodle.

The woodcock is a sandpiper, but it shares little in common with its kin. Even its habitat is different: damp thickets, shrubby meadows and young woods. For most of the year, woodcocks are out of sight and out of mind, concealed in the undergrowth.

Weird is an understatement when it comes to woodcock looks. It’s as if a drunken scientist assembled the creature during a fit of creative madness. An enormous Pinocchio-like bill juts from the bird’s face (useful for drilling worms in soft soil).

Woodcock eyes are huge, inky pools of blackness located closer to the back of the head than the front. Short, stubby legs support a rotund body topped by a large, domelike head.

The overall package’s comical impression is only bolstered by observing the woodcock's walk. It locomotes with an odd, mincing gait, each stride punctuated with rapid upward bounces.

We are entering prime time to see the woodcock’s spectacular courtship display. Beginning in early spring, these camouflaged shrinking violets burst from their shells in a major way.

Males establish a “dancing ground," which is really more of a helipad, usually near brushy cover. Come dusk, the male struts from the thicket and occupies his stage. He begins to issue loud nasal buzzes: peent! peent!

To ensure that any female observers hear him, the woodcock slowly spins as he calls, projecting to all corners.

After he has garnered prospective mates’ attention with his buzzing, his display takes a turn toward spectacular. Launching himself, the woodcock hurtles toward the heavens in great looping spirals. As he ascends, he delivers a constant series of rapid chirps caused by wind rushing through the outer primary feathers.

After reaching the apex of the flight, which might be several hundred feet in the air, the bird suddenly reverses course and swoops earthward.

During the descent, he twitters. When the aerial arias and sky-dancing are complete, the woodcock plops down on his dancing ground, and the cycle begins anew.

This display must be quite impressive to the Ms. Woodcocks. Insofar as the males are concerned, the more girls, the merrier. Male woodcock are polygynous; they will mate with more than one female.

The end game of this crazy courtship is the production of little woodcocks: puffballs on stilts.

Woodcock are found in much of eastern North America and are common in many areas of Ohio, including local Metro Parks. Woodcock walks take place at 7:30 tonight at Battelle Darby Metro Park and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Blacklick Metro Park. For details, visit www.metroparks.net.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.