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Woodcock - Scolopax rusticola
About the size of a pigeon and looking like a large Snipe, the Woodcock is a bulky wading bird with short legs and a very long straight tapering bill. It has cryptic camouflage to suit its woodland habitat, with reddish-brown upperparts and buff-coloured underparts. Its eyes are set far back on its head to give it 360-degree vision and it probes in the ground for food with its long, sensitive bill. It is largely nocturnal, spending most of the day in dense cover.
It can be found in suitable habitat in summer throughout the UK, except for south-west England. In winter, birds are widespread in lowland areas. The breeding habitat is large, unfragmented areas of broadleaved deciduous or mixed broadleaved and coniferous forest, with dense undergrowth. The breeding population has been falling recent years as conifer plantations become too mature for Woodcocks to find open enough breeding areas.
All year round. Most of the birds in the UK are residents; in the autumn birds move to the UK from Finland and Russia to winter here. They are most active at dawn and dusk (crepuscular) and rarely active during the day unless flushed, when they fly off with a whirring wing noise. When disturbed from its resting place, it flies off, zigzagging between the trees and dropping back into cover.
12,500 breeding pairs.
Uncommon resident breeder and fairly common winter visitor
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Species profile
- Common names
- Woodcock, Eurasian Woodcock
- Species group:
- Birds
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
- Order:
- Charadriiformes
- Family:
- Scolopacidae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 55
- First record:
- 16/11/1996 (Ian Retson)
- Last record:
- 24/02/2024 (Leonard, Pete)
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