Chick carrying Woodcocks? (1 Viewer)

Chick carrying Woodcock
According to well established lore, European Woodcock sometimes carry their young from danger by picking them up (either by their feet or by in their feet or by pressing them to their undersides) and flying off. Less popular and evidently less well attested versions of this tale have them carrying the chicks in their bill or riding on their back. I've managed to find an eyewitness account in American literature (The Auk) of the American Woodcock doing this, but, apart from a passing reference in the Lothian Bird Report (1999), nothing other than hearsay accounts in British sources. Apparently, though, there's a letter about it in an old copy of 'British Birds' (Vol 41 p124) , but I don't have access to this issue.

However, this feat (or should that be 'feet'?) has always been doubted and the 'BWP' , whilst not rubbishing it outright, implies that it's not true. So has anyone actually seen this for themselves or have an eyewitness account of this behaviour?

John

Don't know if it is true ( would love to think that it is ! ) but I have a fantastic plate of a Woodcock carrying young between its legs in "Birds in Flight" by W.P Wycraft and illus. by Roland Green.

Somebody at the old Game Conservancy or BASC should know, though if it is "folklore" I imagine it probably eminated from the shooting/countryside fraternity ?


Linz

This is not "eyewitness", but I vaguely remember seeing a scientific paper with such observation, in 20+ years ago scientific journal in Poland. There was even a skretch of bird and chick legs visible below (if I remember, 2 chicks). Cannot find it now, no way.

Did you check specialized woodcock monographs?

I'd agree that such information is more likely to be found in huntin' literature even though the scientific community might look down its collective nose at such a source. Curiously enough, amongst my numerous bird books I don't have a monograph on the species. If I did, then I don't think I'd be asking the question! Unfortunately, I'm a long way from a decent ornithological library (The Lodge? BTO? Edward Grey Institute, etc) and I long ago discovered I've more bird books than any of the nearby academic institutions let alone my local library,
John

I may have witnessed the phenomenon many years ago at the Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve, East Lothian. Here are the notes I took at the time.

Aug 8, 1976 (cow pasture, 7:42am). Woodcock flushed (at c. 8-10') & flew laboriously low over ground into sea buckthorn bushes bordering edge of pasture. It rose c.50' N of the buckthorn from among tall thistles (average height 4') which grew in large patches in this part of the pasture. When I moved forward a few steps, 3 nearly full-grown chicks flushed at intervals from within 3-4' of where the old bird had risen & followed her into the Buckthorn (one didn't fly until I was within 3-4 ' of it). A 4th chick had probably been carried off by the ad when she flew, as her rear end noticeably drooped in flight apparently under the weight of a bulky object pressed between her thighs. The tail was held vertically & legs, prob. those of the chick as they seemed too long to belong to the ad, dangled below her as she flew.

Fred Petersen
Reno, Nv

I'm sure there's video footage of it, I read about it in the shooting press some time ago.

Last year I came across 4 WK chicks that were stuck in a very deep (4ft)wheel rut next to a road through Kielder Forest. The adult was nearby and distressed, so I quickly lifted them out, in hindsight I should have withdrawn and watched from a distance. They were great looking chix, orange and yellow.

Rob

Charles St. John

Hi John,

Have managed to rake out a source for you from my library. It is from "Wild Sports and Natural History of the Highlands " by Charles St. John. My copy is the 1980 reprint of the 1919 Foulis edition but the first edition dates from the nineteenth Century.

On page 364 he writes:

" It is a singular, but well ascertained fact, that woodcocks carry their young ones down to the springs and soft ground where they feed. Before I knew this, I was greatly puzzled, as to how the newly-hatched young of this bird could go from the nest, which is often built in the rankest heather, far from any place where they could possibly feed, down to the marshes. I have, however, ascertained that the old bird lifts her young in her feet, and carries them one by one to their feeding ground. Considering the apparent improbability of this curious act of the woodcock, and the unfitness of their feet and claws for carrying or holding any subsatnce whatever, I should be willing to relate it on my own unsupported evidence; but it has been lately corroborated by the observations of several inteligent foresters and others, who are in the habit of passing through the woods during March and April".


Hope this is of interest,

Lindsay

Seems a woodcock carrying a chick has been filmed in 2023 ( England)