Peent
Seeking the American Woodcock
Peent. This buzzy single note penetrates the evening air in the brushy fields in March and April. Peent. Peent. Around dusk, we are thrilled to hear this vocalization of the American Woodcock (Woodcock) (Scolopax minor). Steeped in legend and lore, this upland, inland “shorebird” has a fascinating biology! With names such as Timberdoodle, Bogsucker, Jack Snipe, Labrador Twister, Mud Snipe, Mud Bat, and Hokempoke, this mysterious bird with the weirdly located eyes, exotic flight dance, and strange vocalizations is synonymous with spring.
I first learned of Woodcocks as a child who, fascinated with birds, would visit some open farmland about a mile from my house on a spring evening to listen to their peents, and watch their courtship flight. A friend far more learned in mathematics than I created a parabolic sound collector that we fitted to a tape recorder. As I recall, we were able to get a few noisy recordings! My fervent fascination with this species continues, as I and many others go out on warm spring evenings to observe and revel in its sky dance courtship that is truly a rite of spring!
As Aldo Leopold so eloquently describes the Woodcock’s sky dance in The Sand County Almanac: “Up and up he goes, the spirals steeper and smaller, the twittering louder and louder, until the performer is only a speck in the sky. Then, without warning, he tumbles like a crippled plane, giving voice in a soft liquid warble that a March bluebird might envy. At a few feet from the ground, he levels off and returns to his peenting ground, usually to the exact spot where the performance began, and there resumes his peenting.” Leopold further notes that the first courtship flights in his Sand County, Wisconsin viewing point occurred at 6:50 PM on the first warm April evening, and began one minute later on each successive evening until June 1, when the first flight occurred at 7:50 PM.
The Woodcock makes a variety of sounds, and by a variety of means during its spring courtship ritual: 1) “Peent” – loud, nasal note, audible serval hundred yards away, usually produced by the male as he spins around and struts on the ground between aerial flights; 2) “Tuko” – before each peent, a soft hiccupping sound, uttered by the male before each peent; 3) “Twitter” - produced as air passes over the points on the tips of its three outer flight feathers (primaries) which act like the reeds in wind instruments, as the male ascends for his courtship flight; and 4) “Chirp” – made by the male during each descending zig-zag flight. Near the end of this descent is the grand finale, with both wing-sound twittering and vocalizing!
In May 1996, Denise and I went out several evenings to document Woodcock courtship behavior. First it hiccups and peents from a clearing in the brush (which can be on a trail!). We found that the first series of peents was always the longest, ranging from 60 to 75 peents in 5 to 7 minutes; subsequent flights occurred every 1 to 5 minutes., After a series of peents, we hear the Woodcock fly up, making a series of twittering noises as it ascends. With luck we may see it as it climbs, though it is beyond human sight, flying high up as part of its courtship dance. with flight times averaging approximately one minute. As it finally descends, the twittering continues but is accompanied by chirping described above. Back and forth it moves as it returns to earth, before suddenly landing close to its launch point. Soon the peenting resumes, to be followed by another flight, and then yet another, until it finds a mate.
The Woodcock is basically a sandpiper that has become terrestrial. It also has evolved some amazingly unique anatomical features. First, the eye placement. Woodcocks spend a lot of time eating earthworms, as they consume their entire body weight of 4 to 10 ounces each day. To get the worms, they must probe deep into the ground with their long bills, leaving them exposed to predators. Over the eons, through natural selection, Woodcocks’ eyes moved from the side of their head to closer to the top, and much farther back. Their eyes are large as well. This gives them a dome of vision overhead, with binocular vision behind their heads! One analogy would be a vehicle with cameras all around, providing a 360-degree view, plus above! Woodcocks are one of the few or only birds that cannot see the tip of their beak, but that seems well offset by everything they can see. In addition to the eye moving, over many years the Woodcocks’ ears moved as well, to forward of the eye. Finally, unlike all other birds, the brain is “upside down,” in which the cerebellum, which controls muscle coordination and body balance, is uniquely located below the rest of the brain.
The tip of the bill, especially the lower mandible, has many sense receptors to identify finding a worm. There is a concentration of blood vessels and nerve endings at the tip of the beak, as well as tooth-like structures. While deep in the mud, the bird senses a worm but cannot open its entire beak to eat it. However, the bird has muscles inside its beak, allowing it to open the tip of its lower mandible enabling it to eat the worm!
Woodcocks have an odd walk as well. They test the ground with sensitive feet, searching for worms. For the walk of the woodcock, see the YouTube video from the Center for Biological Diversity:
Or, for folks in New York’s Capital Region, attend one of Drew Hopkins’ Woodcock programs at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, where it is rumored that he will imitate the walk of the Woodcock!
Woodcocks nest on the ground, in shallow depressions among dead leaves. Most clutches are 4 eggs, which are incubated for 3 weeks, before splitting lengthwise to hatch! One of the very few birds to do this. The young are precocial, and can walk within 2 hours. Within 4 days they are foraging, and can fly in 2 weeks! We were very fortunate in May of 2013 to see this Woodcock apparently on a nest in the leaves, and a recently hatched young at the Magee Marsh wildlife area in Ohio.
Unfortunately, the Woodcock population in the eastern US is declining. Both the NYS Conservationist (2006) and Dr. Roger Masse of SUNY-Cobleskill (2023) reported a decrease in Woodcock on their breeding grounds since the 1960s. This decline has been noted as a 1 or 2 percent annual drop, from studies referred to as s singing ground survey or spring surveys of Woodcock breeding grounds, and is attributed largely to habitat loss, in part due to how the land is used. Dr. Masse and his students continue to study this species, including conducting Woodcock banding and data collection in the spring near Cobleskill, NY.
Woodcocks are also being affected by climate change. In our area of upstate New York, they are arriving and displaying earlier in the spring than they did even 10 years ago. A series of maps on this Audubon website shows projected changes in range in the eastern North America with changes in temperature from 1.5 to 3.0 degrees C. At the most extreme shown, Woodcocks are projected to no longer be present in our immediate area, as the entire range moves north and to somewhat higher elevations. https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/american-woodcock
Let’s get out there this spring and listen for the peent of this fascinating bird, enjoy its sky dance, and work to preserve its future.
Sources and Resources:
Lives of North American Birds, Kenn Kaufman, 1996 Houghton Mifflin Company.
The American Woodcock, by timothy J Post, NYS Conservationist October 2006.
The Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold. 1966. Ballantine Books, NY.
Drew Hopkins, Environmental Educator, NYSDEC Five Rivers, personal communication (pre-field trip lectures on American Woodcock). 2024.
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/american-woodcock.
Roger Masse, American Woodcock Ecology and Management in the Northeast USA; lecture to Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club September 2022 (recording available on the bird club’s programs page).
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website.
You have told the story of this fascinating bird so beautifully!
They are such amazing birds! So cool that Denise was able to hold one in her hands.
A couple of years ago, I watched a woodcock slowly cross the road (thankfully a lightly-traveled farm road) in front of me. It was fascinating.