2 / OutdoorIllinois October 2010

Sportsmen and birders alike marvel at the American woodcock,a.k.a. sky dancer, little lover of swamps or timberdoodle.

A Bird of Many Names

Story By Deck Major

T he American woodcock isa bird of the eastern forestsof the United States andCanada. Its range extendswestward through the east-

ern half of most of the plains states anda small part of eastern and gulf Texas.Woodcock are rotund, little birds

with mottled, brown, tan and blue col-oration that blends perfectly with for-est leaf patterns. They have short,rounded wings for strong, but short,flights in dense cover. Their eyes arewide and set back on their heads, pro-viding for a wide viewing angle thataids in both land and aerial predatordetection. Females are slightly larger

than males but neither sex weighsmore than 0.5 pounds.The literal translation of the wood-

cock’s scientific name, Philohelaminor, is “little lover of swamps orbogs.” Its common name in many partsof the state is “timberdoodle,” whichcomes from its long, specialized billused to catch earthworms. Dependingupon time of year and local site charac-teristics, 50-90 percent of a woodcock’sdiet is earthworms.Most often, woodcock are not far

from moist, fertile soil. With theirextra-long, 2.5-inch bill (female’s billsare slightly longer), they probe the soilfor food. The bird feeds by raising theupper portion of the tip of its bill as itprobes. When it encounters a fooditem, it eases the tip around anunlucky worm or invertebrate, then

snaps its bill shut and gingerly pullsits prize to daylight. These little guyscan eat almost two ounces of wormsper day. In terms of numbers, thistranslates roughly to five juicy night-crawlers and about 40 smaller,garden-variety worms.Woodcock spend their summers in

northern New England and upper Mid-west states and Canada and they winterprimarily along the Gulf coast statesfrom South Carolina to eastern Texas.Illinois then, is a mid-migration state.However, several woodcock do breedand nest in Illinois each spring.

Wide-set eyes and a long bill used

to probe earthworms from the soil

aid in the identification of the

American woodcock.

October 2010 OutdoorIllinois / 3

The male’s courtships display is aspecial show. Aldo Leopold, in his clas-sic book, “A Sand County Almanac,”called the display a “sky dance.” Wood-cock begin showing up in Illinois dur-ing spring in mid-February (hardlyspring weather to a hummingbird orswallow) and courtship displays beginimmediately. In fact, birds have beenobserved singing in 15-degree Fahren-heit temperatures in areas with patchesof deep snow.Males pick a spot in an open area or

brushy field, referred to as a singingground, for this courtship ritual. Often,singing grounds are a recent forestclearcut, a power line right-of-waythrough a forest, an abandoned pastureor old field adjacent to forested land.Males fly to their singing ground just

before dusk each night. To woo afemale, the male stands on the groundand rotates, making a vocalizationcalled a “peent” every few seconds forabout 3-4 minutes. Then he takes offinto the wind, flying upward andalmost out of sight. As he rises, air rush-ing through his wings makes awhistling sound. At the top of his flight,it often appears as though he flies arough figure-eight before descending.As he drops, another warble-likewhistling vocalization is made. Unbe-lievably, he lands within feet of histake-off spot and soon begins peentingagain. This courtship display usually

lasts for 30-60 minutes each evening,but it can go on all night during full-moon situations.Illinois woodcock don’t waste any

time and begin nesting in March.Usually, hens pick the edges of young,second-growth woodlands that areusually 10-15 feet high, or abandonedfields with annual weeds and nooverhead woody cover. Males shareno responsibility during nesting orbrood rearing.Hens usually make a shallow depres-

sion on the forest floor for a nest andmay line it with a few leaves. Four eggsis the normal clutch size and eggs hatchin about 20 days. Hens produce a singlebrood each year, but will re-nest if afirst attempt is unsuccessful.The precocial young woodcock

leave the nest, never to return, soonafter hatching. The main diet of hatch-lings is earthworms and other inverte-brates and insects. In about two weeks,they are flight capable.

Bird in TroubleMany hunters and birders alike have

watched their favorite woodcockcoverts come and go. Woodcock do notuse mature forests; they need young“shrubby” blocks of timber. These areasare called early-successional foreststands. The life of a woodcock covert isrelatively short then at best, often nomore than 20 years.Long ago, the natural disturbances

made by very hot fires killed trees andthus created forest openings and early-successional timber. As farms wereabandoned throughout much of theupper Midwest, shrublands and wood-cock habitat also was created. Howev-er, much of this land has been allowedto mature and is no longer preferred bywoodcock. Even beavers created forestopenings when they deserted theirwell-engineered ponds and the damseventually broke.Now, Mother Nature creates early

successional timber through natural dis-asters such as tornadoes, ice storms andhurricanes. However storms rarelyoccur where desired or planned. Thebest way to create early successionaltimber where it can be utilized bybreeding and migrating birds is to usesilvicultural (forestry) methods.Timber harvests using professional

forest methods of even-aged manage-

A woodcock’s mottled coloration

helps it blend into the vegetation

on the forest floor.

Woodcocks begin nesting as

early as March, producing a

single nest containing an average

of four eggs.

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ment can be used effectively to createquality woodcock habitat. Two differentmethods of even-aged management arebest. The first is called a shelterwoodcut. Usually, removal of trees occurs intwo stages. The first stage involves cut-ting trees for regeneration and the nextcut(s) involve removing competitionfrom remaining desirable trees.The other even-aged management

method is called a clearcut where alltrees are removed. When used in smallstands of 5-20 acres, excellent herba-ceous groundcover and subsequentyoung forest sapling habitat is createdwhen the forest canopy is either openedor removed using these harvest methods. The herbaceous groundcover and

subsequent developing thick stand offorest seedlings/saplings creates impor-tant habitat (called stem density) forother forest wildlife besides Americanwoodcock. These areas are far from“biological deserts.” Wildliferesearchers have discovered a long listof species that benefit when early for-est succession vegetation is created,including white-tailed deer, ruffedgrouse, wild turkey, indigo bunting,prairie warbler, blue-winged warbler,chestnut-sided warbler, yellow-breast-ed chat, white-eyed vireo, blue-graygnatcatcher, rufous-sided towhee,northern cardinal, brown thrasher,great-crested flycatcher and the black-and-white warbler.Unfortunately, timber harvest on

public land is unpopular and has oftenbeen halted by well meaning but mis-guided litigation. Authors of the 2008“American Conservation Plan, a Summa-ry of and Recommendations for Wood-cock Conservation in North America”state that, “loss and degradation of earlysuccessional forest habitat is believedto be the primary factor responsible forthese declines (1.8 percent decline peryear in singing routes in the CentralRegion since the mid-1960s).” They fur-ther state “changes in land use and soci-

etal attitudes towards even-aged forestmanagement practices (i.e. clearcut-ting) that create early successional habi-tat will likely contribute to continualdeclines in woodcock populations.”The plan specifically identifies that Illi-nois needs to create 12,140 acres ofthis habitat annually in order to stabi-lize current habitat declines.Woodcock have very specific food

and cover requirements: clearings ofscattered grass or annual weeds forcourtship; young dense forests for nest-ing/brood rearing; young forests withareas of fertile, moist soil compositionfor feeding; and, large fields (morethan 3 acres) of scattered grass orannual weeds for roosting. Providingall stages of growth in our Illinoisforests creates habitat for wildlifespecies that need early successionalforests, such as the timberdoodle.If you would like to improve your

property for woodcock, consider con-tacting your district wildlife biologist.Often, as you profit from wood prod-ucts through either sawlogs or fire-wood production, a welcome bi-prod-uct of your effort is the creation ofneeded early successional forest habitatfor a wide variety of wildlife species.The best friend of the American

woodcock may very well be a loggingtruck.

Deck Major is the DNR Region III/IV

Wildlife Biologist based in the Alton

office. He may be reached at (618) 462-

1181 ext. 144 or deck.major@illinois.gov.

I n 1998, Illinois hunters averaged

4.9 days afield in pursuit of wood-

cock and averaged less than two

birds per hunter per season. Most

hunters reported that this was a

“bonus” bird, taken while pursuing

either bobwhite quail or other more

popular upland game. Since 1997,

the woodcock season in the Midwest

has been 45 days with a daily bag

limit of three. Two-thirds of Illinois

woodcock hunters reported that they

usually, or always, used a dog.

Early successional forests provide

suitable habitat for woodcock and

a diversity of other wildlife,

including deer, turkey and several

species of songbirds.4 / OutdoorIllinois October 2010

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