By Megan Hart, Park Biologist
“Peent! Peent!” An animal calls from the darkening field. The mystery creature keeps calling. Try as you might, you just cannot seem to find the origin of the calls in the twilight. You walk on and a figure explodes from the ground near you. A football-sized bird with a long beak is silhouetted against the purpling sky. It disappears further into the darkness, and all is silent. Then comes a “peent” as the bird settles itself again in the dark. You puzzle over this winged football for a few moments wondering what you just experienced. This bird goes by many names: “timberdoodle,” “Labrador twister,” “bog sucker,” “mud snipe,” or “hokumpoke.” Let me introduce you to the American woodcock.
The American woodcock is truly unique. It belongs to a group known as shorebirds, which are named for their association with water. However, contrary to classification, the American woodcock’s habitat is young forests and old fields, and they are perfectly adapted to these conditions. Their mottled brown feathers offer perfect camouflage against the forest floor and make them difficult to spot. They have long, prehensile bills to search the soil for earthworms, spiders, millipedes, ants and beetles. While foraging, American woodcocks use their large high-set eyes to give them a panoramic view of potential threats. The trade-off of having this advantage is that their brains are positioned “upside down” within their skulls to make way for these large eyes. They also walk with a strange rocking gait, which is thought to help them detect movement of earthworms and other invertebrates under the soil. All of these factors combine to add up to one interesting animal. One of the most fascinating things about it is its sky dance.
The sky dance is one of my favorite signs of spring. These shorebirds head to old fields and large forest gaps during the dawn and dusk hours to prepare for their daily performances. Males make their way to areas with open sky and prepare to perform for watching females. The males begin with a loud “peent!” and launch into a looping flight high into the sky. These circles get smaller and smaller as they ascend as high as 300 feet. While making these circles, you can hear a series of twittering sounds made by air moving through the primary feathers on their wings. Then, the males spiral into a deep dive down to the ground and land just inches from where they began and the process begins again. If the area is large enough, several males will display in the same area and give females the opportunity to assess multiple sky dances.
This springtime ritual is in peril. American woodcocks are declining throughout much of their range. The major threat for the American woodcock is the loss of young forest habitat. This loss is impacting several other declining species like golden-winged warblers and ruffed grouse. Early successional habitat is being lost to urban development, forest succession and degradation by invasive encroachment. To keep this habitat on the landscape, new patches must be created or established areas must be kept from developing into more mature forest. At Lake Metroparks, we manage for early successional habitat by mowing and selective removal of woody vegetation and trees. By doing this, nesting and displaying sites are kept on the ground for American woodcocks and a variety of other early successional species that are currently declining in North America.
You can experience the sky dance of the American woodcock at many of the parks with open fields from late March through early May at dawn and dusk. You have your best chance for observations on clear nights with a full moon. They are most notably watched at the fields of Lake Erie Bluffs, Girdled Road Reservation (south and Skok Meadow entrances), Penitentiary Glen Reservation and Chagrin River Park. Please remember to give the dancers their space and enjoy one of nature’s spectacular spring shows.