Scolopax rusticola
Silhouette: Craig Nash · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) is a medium-small wading bird found in temperate and subarctic Eurasia. It has cryptic camouflage to suit its woodland habitat, with reddish-brown upperparts and buff-coloured underparts. Its eyes are set far back on its head to give it 360-degree vision and it probes in the ground for food with its long, sensitive bill, making it vulnerable to cold weather when the ground remains frozen.
The male performs a courtship flight known as "roding" at dusk in spring. It is widely believed that the female will sometimes carry chicks between her legs whilst flying, though evidence of this is purely anecdotal. The world population is estimated to be 14 million to 16 million birds.
The Eurasian woodcock was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Scolopax rusticola. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock. The specific epithet rusticola is the Latin name of a gamebird mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Marcus Valerius Martialis. It was possibly a grouse. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Its closest relatives... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 2 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 7 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 8 | Vatnajokull National Park | 🇮🇸 Iceland | |
| 9 | Gauja National Park | 🇱🇻 Latvia | |
| 10 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 11 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 12 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 2 | Kazan | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 3 | Moscow | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 4 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Suzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 7 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 8 | Minsk | 🇧🇾 Belarus | |
| 9 | Saint Petersburg | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 10 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Eurasian Woodcock sighting in London on a given day, based on 178 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 133rd most-seen of the 203 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Eurasian Woodcock in London on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eurasian Woodcock sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
19th of 31
Of the 31 cities where we can rate Eurasian Woodcock sightings, London ranks 19th at under 5%. The best odds are in Novosibirsk (Russia, about 10%), Kazan (Russia, about 10%) and Moscow (Russia, under 5%).
Same family: Scolopacidae
The closest relatives of the Eurasian Woodcock that you can see in London (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Green Sandpiper (about 10%), Common Sandpiper (about 10%) and Common Snipe (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eurasian Woodcock is recorded against all the birds logged in London (178 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
