For the most current research on American Woodcock in the lab, visit woodcockmigration.org
American Woodcock are sometimes referred to as the "Prince of the Uplands", among many other endearing nicknames. They are an oddity - a shore bird that lives in upland forest with an upside-down brain and an appetite for earthworms. Woodcock research in the lab is focused primarily on their migration in the eastern US, and we are working to better understand the behaviors of the birds as they travel from their northern breeding areas, which include Maine, to wintering sites in the southeastern U.S. Key to this line of research is understanding the rate and timing of migratory movements, use of habitat while making migratory stopovers, and (importantly) how these behaviors processes contribute to individual mortality risk and as a consequence population-level survival.
American Woodcock are sometimes referred to as the "Prince of the Uplands", among many other endearing nicknames. They are an oddity - a shore bird that lives in upland forest with an upside-down brain and an appetite for earthworms. Woodcock research in the lab is focused primarily on their migration in the eastern US, and we are working to better understand the behaviors of the birds as they travel from their northern breeding areas, which include Maine, to wintering sites in the southeastern U.S. Key to this line of research is understanding the rate and timing of migratory movements, use of habitat while making migratory stopovers, and (importantly) how these behaviors processes contribute to individual mortality risk and as a consequence population-level survival.
Initial woodcock research in the lab was conducted by recent M.S. recipient Brian Allen, who was employed for 10 years with the USFWS working at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge , and lead a field investigation of woodcock migration ecology at Cape May National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. Brian used data collected from radio-marked woodcock at Cape May to better understand woodcock habitat use during migration and the factors that affect stopover duration. He completed his thesis during the summer 2017 and is currently working on publishing his results in scientific journals. This project was conducted in collaboration with our partners at the USFWS and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
We're now following up on Brian's migration work and extending our focus on woodcock across the entire Eastern Management Region, taking advantage of recent advances in GPS tagging technology. PhD student Alex Fish kicked off our pilot season in Fall 2017 when we GPS-marked 6 woodcock in Maine prior to fall migration. These tracking tags weigh less than 5 grams and will periodically send us data on the birds location and status (live or dead) as they make their way south for the winter. A brief summary of the project is provided in the PDF below - and you can visit our main project website woodcockmigration.org to learn more.
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Migration paths from woodcock GPS-marked in Maine during 2017. Five birds were marked at at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and a 6th was marked near Old Town, Maine. Five of the 6 birds were captured on the same night in the same roost field, and the variety of paths illustrate the variability in migration strategies among individuals.