As I sit here and type this, I'm being treated to the courtship sounds of the male American Woodcock, a nocturnal short-legged, long-billed, chunky little bird (about 8 1/2" long). The fields around my little cottage a full of them at the moment, all making their buzzy "Peent! Peent!" call, followed by a musical flutter of wings as they attempt to charm the socks off the female woodcocks by performing the most amazing aerial dance routine. There's a good reason the courtship dance of the male woodcock is referred to as "skydancing". He starts out on the ground making his nasally "peent! peent!" call, then flies up in a wide spiral to about 250 to 300 feet and then descends in a zigzag like a leaf falling gently to the ground, to land in the same spot he took off from, and then repeats the whole thing all over again.
I've been treated to this for almost a week, and I'm lucky enough to be able to watch one particular woodcock from inside the house. His spot is about 15 feet away from my window, and I can watch from the warmth of the house and without disturbing his quest for female companionship.
Woodcocks are promiscuous breeders. What that means in bird world is that both males and females will breed with multiple mates. Kind of like an avian singles bar full of birds looking for one night stands.
Ah, spring! And love is in the air, quite literally.
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