American Woodcock

American woodcocks break the mold for a shorebird — stocky, secretive, and living in moist woodland instead of open water or mudflats. The eyes sit unusually high and far back on the head, giving the bird nearly 360-degree vision while its long bill stays buried in soft ground, probing for earthworms. Mottled russet-and-brown plumage keeps it nearly invisible against the forest floor, but at twilight the woodcock gives itself away with a strange, fluttering courtship flight — climbing steeply on wings that produce a twittering sound, then spiraling back down while calling — a display distinctive enough to have earned nicknames like timberdoodle and bogsucker. Home is the forested eastern half of North America.