AL American Woodcock Hunting Guide

Also known as: Woodcock, timberdoodle

The American woodcock, sometimes colloquially referred to as the timberdoodle, mudbat, becasse, bogsucker, brush snipe, night partridge, or Labrador twister is a small shorebird species found primarily in the eastern half of North America. Woodcocks spend most of their time on the ground in brushy, young-forest habitats, where the birds' brown, black, and gray plumage provides excellent camouflage.

Habitat & Range

Woodcocks inhabit forested and mixed forest-agricultural-urban areas east of the 98th meridian. Woodcocks have been sighted as far north as York Factory, Manitoba, and east to Labrador and Newfoundland. In winter, they migrate as far south as the Gulf Coast of the United States and Mexico.[11] The primary breeding range extends from Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick) west to southeastern Manitoba, and south to northern Virginia, western North Carolina, Kentucky, northern Tennessee, northern Illinois, Missouri, and eastern Kansas. A limited number breed as far south as Florida and Texas. The species may be expanding its distribution northward and westward.[11] After migrating south in autumn, most woodcocks spend the winter in the Gulf Coast and southeastern Atlantic Coast states. Some may remain as far north as southern Maryland, eastern Virginia, and southern New Jersey. The core of the wintering range centers on Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.[11]Based on theChristmas Bird Countresults, winter concentrations are highest in the northern half ofAlabama. American woodcocks live in wet thickets, moist woods, and brushy swamps.[7]Ideal habitats feature early successional habitat and abandoned farmland mixed with forest. In late summer, some woodcocks roost on the ground at night in large openings among sparse, patchy vegetation.[11] Courtship/breeding habitats include forest openings, roadsides, pastures, and old fields from which males call and launch courtship flights in springtime.; Nesting habitats include thickets, shrubland, and young to middle-aged forest interspersed with openings.; Feeding habitats have moist soil and feature densely growing young trees such as aspen (Populusspp.), birch (Betulaspp.), and mixed hardwoods less than 20 years of age, and shrubs, particularly alder (Alnusspp.).; Roosting habitats are semiopen sites with short, sparse plant cover, such as blueberry barrens, pastures, and recently heavily logged forest stands.[11]

Life History

Philohela minorGray, JE; Rusticola minorVieillot, LJP TheAmerican woodcock(Scolopax minor), sometimes colloquially referred to as thetimberdoodle,mudbat,becasse,bogsucker,brush snipe,night partridge, orLabrador twister[3][4][5][6]is a smallshorebirdspeciesfound primarily in the eastern half ofNorth America. Woodcocks spend most of their time on the ground in brushy, young-forest habitats, where the birds' brown, black, and gray plumage provides excellentcamouflage. The American woodcock is the only species ofwoodcockinhabiting North America.[7]Although classified with the sandpipers and shorebirds in the familyScolopacidae, the American woodcock lives mainly in upland settings. The population of the American woodcock has fallen by an average of slightly more than 1% annually since the 1960s. Most authorities attribute this decline to aloss of habitatcaused by forest maturation and urban development. It is also a populargame bird, with about 540,000 killed annually by some 133,000 hunters in the United States.[8] In 2008, wildlife biologists and conservationists released an American woodcock conservation plan presenting figures for the acreage of early successional habitat that must be created and maintained in the United States and Canada to stabilize the woodcock population at current levels, and to return it to 1970s densities.[9] The American woodcock has a plump body, short legs, a large, rounded head, and a long, straight prehensile bill. Adults are 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm) long and weigh 5 to 8 ounces (140 to 230 g).[10]Females are considerably larger than males.[11]The bill is 2.5 to 2.8 inches (6.4 to 7.1 cm) long.[6]Wingspans range from 16.5 to 18.9 inches (42 to 48 cm).[12] The plumage is a cryptic mix of different shades of browns, grays, and black. The chest and sides vary from yellowish-white to rich tans.[11]The nape of the head is black, with three or four crossbars of deep buff or rufous.[6]The feet and toes, which are small and weak, are brownish gray to reddish brown.[11]Woodcocks have large eyes located high in their heads, and their visual field is probably the largest of any bird, 360° in the horizontal plane and 180° in the vertical plane.[13] The woodcock uses its long, prehensile bill to probe in the soil for food, mainly invertebrates and especially earthworms. A unique bone-and-muscle arrangement lets the bird open and close the tip of its upper bill, or mandible, while it is sunk in the ground. Both the underside of the upper mandible and the long tongue are rough-surfaced for grasping slippery prey.[6]

Status, Trends & Threats

The American woodcock is not considered globally threatened by theIUCN. It is more tolerant ofdeforestationthan other woodcocks and snipes; as long as some sheltered woodland remains for breeding, it can thrive even in regions that are mainly used foragriculture.[1][30]The estimated population is 5 million, so it is the most common sandpiper in North America.[22] The American Woodcock Conservation Plan presents regional action plans linked to bird conservation regions, fundamental biological units recognized by the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative. The Wildlife Management Institute oversees regional habitat initiatives intended to boost the American woodcock's population by protecting, renewing, and creating habitat throughout the species' range.[9] Creating young-forest habitat for American woodcocks helps more than 50 other species of wildlife that need early successional habitat during part or all of their lifecycles. These include relatively common animals such aswhite-tailed deer,snowshoe hare,moose,bobcat,wild turkey, andruffed grouse, and animals whose populations have also declined in recent decades, such as thegolden-winged warbler,whip-poor-will,willow flycatcher,indigo bunting, andNew England cottontail.[31] Leslie Glasgow,[32]the assistant secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife, Parks, and Marine Resources from 1969 to 1970, wrote adissertationthroughTexas A&M Universityon the woodcock, with research based on his observations through theLouisiana State University(LSU) Agricultural Experiment Station. He was an LSU professor from 1948 to 1980 and an authority on wildlife in thewetlands.[33]

Hunting Season

Dec 1 - Jan 28.

References

• Alabama — American Woodcock