American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

Breeding Season and Fall Foraging/Staging Habitat may be distributed over the COMPARTMENT

Breeding Season Habitat:
      (Upland Brush or (Any Upland Deciduous (Reg)))
   adjacent to:
      (Grass or Savanna)

Fall Foraging/Staging Habitat:
      Lowland Brush

Rule contributed by Al Stewart, MDNR

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

Habitat: Woodcock breeding habitat consists of early successional stages of forest regeneration. Optimal habitat includes light-to-medium density shrubs or young trees (hardwoods or mixed hardwood-conifer) on poorly drained soils covered with layers of dead and decaying vegetation and interspersed with a generous amount of open upland. Although there is variation in plant species composing the woodcock's breeding habitat across its range, vegetational structure remains nearly constant, and the need for openings is universal.

Intensive investigations in Michigan and almost 30 years of nest and brood searching by the author reveal considerable variability in breeding habitat in Michigan. Many plant species are involved, and soils and their moisture content vary. Aspen and alder generally occur where the densest woodcock populations are found.

Nests and broods are generally close to upland openings where males perform their spectacular courtship displays. In summer and fall, adults and immatures frequent openings for night roosting, feeding, practicing song flights, and premigratory staging.

Habitat: Breeding: Moist woodlands in early stages of succession, swamps, stream banks, bogs, rich bottomlands, often in thickets of alder, willow or maple, brushy edges of woods, dry open woods and fields. Wintering: Concentrate along rivers and streams.

Special Habitat Requirements: Fertile, moist soil that contains earthworms. Fields or small forest openings for courtship activities and nocturnal roosting. Dense brushy swales for diurnal cover.

Habitat: Wet thickets, moist woods, brushy swamps. Favors a mix of forest and open fields, often spending day in the forest, night in the open. Mostly in deciduous or mixed woods with much young growth and moist soil, such as thickets along streams. At night may be in open pastures, abandoned farm fields, open swamp edges.

Diet: Mostly earthworms and insects. Earthworms are major prey at most times and places. Insects also important, especially insect larvae that burrow in soil, such as those of many beetles, crane flies, and others. Also eaten are millipedes, spiders, snails, and other invertebrates. Consumes some plant material including seeds of grasses, sedges, smartweeds.

Nest: Site is on ground, usually in open woods or overgrown fields, in areas with many dead leaves. Nest is a scrape lined with dead leaves, other debris.