A perpetual for many bird watchers is discovering the springtime skydance with the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor). The males are the dancers. In nearby shrubs you may notice females observing in silence. The song and dance performance will long be remembered as magnificent by all who take part in this springtime ritual of courtship observation.
Search for a clearing near a thicket, preferably only a tad moist. Look and pay attention from a hidden and low vantage point. Often I would reach the best observation post about a half an hour before the drama was to begin. Seated quietly on my tiny campstool, with night binoculars at hand, my companions and I would wait for chunky little brown birds to show themselves.
How did I know when the dance would begin? It was very punctual at just about 22 minutes after sunset each evening when the weather was just right. I never observed them perform this ritual in the rain or on exceptionally cloudy evenings.
Once my family learned of this event just by reading Aldo Leopold’s 1949 classic A Sand County Almanac, it was out of the question to skip this annual milestone. Leopold considered this the initiation of spring in the northern woods and referred to it as the “skydance”.
It is hard to believe these stubby little gamebirds are in the same family as the sandpipers we view skittering across the sands along the shoreline. Woodcocks have very short legs, an unusually long bill with a specialized tip that’s created for catching earthworms in the soil. Their mottled brown color looks a great deal like fallen leaves on the forest floor.
At times there would be more than one male in the vicinity. Those were exciting times. Each male bird kept its own timing which means you actually could see one going up while you were listening to another make its “peent” sound on the ground. This indefatigable male would turn and “peent” again in another direction, over and over, presumably to draw the attention of females from all sides. The “peent” is a sound like that from the nighthawk except its a bit deeper buzz.
The stout little gamebird bursts straight up to the sky silently. The simple truth is that with good hearing or an amplifier you are able to hear his wings twittering with a melodic sound while he gains altitude and does spiral loops until he’s about 300 feet high before he dives back with twittering sounds when he starts his return.The twittering sound originates from air passing between wing feathers. His zig-zag dive to the very same place on the ground is silent except for the soundof his soft wings flapping to a halt. Precisely how he finds his accurate location is a mystery to me. But seconds right after he lands and settles, he begins his directional peenting pattern again.
Even on a common night you’ll probably see about 6 sky dance dives per male American Woodcock. They will resume a short while before dawn the subsequent morning. This fancy courtship ritual continues every night for months, in some areas approximately four months. It is apparently the activity the males do as the females hatch the brood and grow into fledgling size and then leave the nest. At the outset I believed it was only to attract a mate. Now I wonder if in addition, it has another sort of function that goes beyond the original courtship. I guess you would need to ask a woodcock!
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