American Woodcock - Habitats

Habitats

American Woodcock live in wet thickets, moist woods, and brushy swamps. Ideal habitats feature young forest and abandoned farmland mixed with forest. In late summer, some Woodcock roost on the ground at night in large openings among sparse, patchy vegetation.

• 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 mid age forest interspersed with openings.
• Feeding habitats have moist soil and feature densely growing young trees such as aspen (Populus sp.), birch (Betula sp.), and mixed hardwoods less than 20 years of age, and shrubs, particularly alder (Alnus sp.).
• Roosting habitats are semi-open sites with short, sparse plant cover, such as blueberry barrens, pastures, and recently heavily logged forest stands.