Bird of the Month: American Woodcock

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Make way for the Timberdoodle! Otherwise known as the American Woodcock, this quirky, lovable bird will soon be entering their mating season – which means a showy flourish of "peenting" and impressive flight displays to attract a suitable partner.

The American Woodcock is a bird with a ridiculously large number of colorful nicknames. They include bogsucker, mud snipe, night partridge, big-eye, Labrador twister, mudbat, and (most well-known) timberdoodle, which is a very amusing word to say. Especially out loud. Go ahead, we'll wait.

Woodcocks acquired those nicknames based on their looks and habits, both of which are fascinating, and it is often said that woodcocks were built by committee or are a compilation of God's leftover parts. I once heard someone refer to a woodcock as a meatloaf with wings.

Which is another way of saying: this is an awkward-looking bird. It has a rounded, pudgy body, short legs, an angular head, large eyes and a long bill. Its plumage – a mosaic of brown, gray, tan and buffy white – provides the best camouflage in the dense, moist, woodland habitat that it prefers. This preference is a surprise because it belongs to a family of shorebirds. Unlike all their closest relatives, woodcocks eschew the shore and use their long bills to probe the leafy woodland floor for tasty worms.

Despite the aforementioned description of weirdness and leftover parts, it is a very charismatic bird that croons my personal song of spring. Their enchanting and buzzy "peent," made by males only, lifts my spirits like no other and definitely announces the beginning of the warmer months.

The "peenting" is done at dawn and dusk as the first course of a mesmerizing courtship display designed to persuade a female into mating.

The display starts on a singing ground or lek. The males gather to show off for the ladies and peent. When the time is right, males fly up in wide spirals, their rapid wingbeats producing a high twittering sound. When maximum height is reached, they circle for about 10 seconds, the twittering increasing with the undulation of wings. They then descend at high speed, swerving back and forth, and resume peenting once they reach the ground. Hopefully, a female was impressed and agrees to be his mate. If she does, and after successful mating, the male stays on the lek in hopes of finding another willing mate, and the female incubates the eggs and rears the chicks alone.

Watching (or listening to) this courtship behavior is a treat for anyone. As March progresses into April, woodcocks will arrive and begin their displays. Since they are usually found in more remote settings (Presque Isle, wetland areas) and their displays occur in near darkness, Erie Bird Observatory will be organizing woodcock walks to known display sites; look for announcements later on in March and early April on the EBO website and on socials.

They really are quite endearing, so don't miss this opportunity to experience these collections of random parts, these meatloaves, these Labrador twisters, these timberdoodles. Say it out loud!

Mary Birdsong is the lead shorebird monitor for Erie Bird Observatory. Learn more at eriebirdobservatory.org. Mary can be reached at mbirdsong@eriereader.com