The Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) is the forest's dusk-flying wader — a large, bark-coloured bird with a long bill, best known for its whirring display flight over clearings in spring twilight. It measures 33–38 cm long with a wingspan of roughly 55–65 cm and weighs about 270–420 grams, with a stocky, robust body and a bark-and-leaf-patterned, mottled brown plumage giving it outstanding camouflage against the forest floor. The bill is long and straight, about 7–8 cm, and the eyes sit high and far back on the head, giving an unusually wide field of view to the sides and behind — useful for a bird that spends its life watching for danger while probing blindly downward.
The Woodcock is best known for the male's display flight, "roding", flown back and forth over woodland edges and clearings at dusk while he gives a deep, grunting "korrr-korrr" alternating with a sharp, bright "pitt". Breeding throughout Sweden, it is one of the country's most numerous forest-dwelling waders, with a population estimated at 200,000–400,000 pairs; it is a migrant arriving in April and leaving in autumn, though a few birds may overwinter in mild years. It nests on the ground, in a shallow scrape among leaves and twigs well hidden in the forest understorey, with the female laying 4 eggs and incubating alone for about three weeks; the precocial young follow the female, who raises the brood without help from the male. Its diet is mainly earthworms along with insect larvae and other small animals, sought by probing soft, damp soil with its long, sensitive bill, whose tip can open underground to grasp prey. It is best seen at dusk from April to July along clearing edges, old forest tracks and deciduous woodland margins, and remains a traditional Swedish game species, though numbers taken are limited.
Read about this species in Swedish →