Eurasian Woodcock

How to recognise it

• Round and stocky with a long, straight, pale flesh-coloured bill with a black tip
• Upperparts mottled black, ash-grey and rufous, with black bars across head and nape
• Large eyes set very far back on the head
• Male and female share the same plumage and cannot be told apart in the field

Call and song

In the display flight it gives three to four muffled, grunting notes ending in a sharp, explosive sound: "oårt oårt oårt pissp". The call is sharp and loud, roughly "ziwitz", alternating with a drawn-out, frog-like "quorr".

Where and when

The Eurasian Woodcock is a migrant that breeds throughout Sweden but is commoner in the central parts. It returns to Skåne in late March and central Sweden in early April, and moves south in October and November. It is reported most in June and rarely in January, August and September. Only a few individuals try to winter in southern Sweden in some winters.

Food and behaviour

The Eurasian Woodcock is active at night and spends the day hidden in bushes and thickets. Adults flush only at the last moment when a person approaches and fly off with a whirring wing sound. During roding the male flies back and forth over the territory several times at dusk, calling. It feeds mainly on earthworms, and also takes insects and their larvae, freshwater molluscs and some seeds.