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Eurasian Woodcocks are medium-sized waders. Their plumage is highly cryptic, with colours ranging from grey and silver to brown and dark-grey. The front is mostly grey, with a grey-brown bar pattern. Behind the grey forehead, the rest of the crown has broad transverse brown and grey bands (as opposed to other snipes' longitudinal stripe patterns). The face shows a prominent black loral stripe, above which a creamy supercilium reaches to just above the eye. Under the eyes there is a narrow white line. The rest of the head is vermiculated brown and dark-grey. The mantle is mostly brown and dark-grey, with a narrow silvery inverted "V" down the back, leading to a rufous rump that transitions to a rufous uppertail with a dark-grey subterminal band and a light-grey terminal band. The folded upperwings are barred and scalloped, mostly brown and dark-grey, with 3 silver-grey wing bars. The irises are dark. The grey bill has a darker tip than the rest. Legs and feet are grey.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Eurasian Woodcock is available HERE .

The overall East-West extent of the Eurasian Woodcock's range spans the entire width of the continent, from Ireland and the British Isles in the West to China and Japan in the East. Their breeding grounds are in mid-latitude (subarctic) Europe and Asia (most breed in Fennoscandia and in Russia). The winter quarters stretch from selected sites in northern Africa, parts of western Europe, in particular Iberia, Italy, the Adriatic coastal fringe and Greece, in the West, via near-coastal Asia Minor and the South coast of the Caspian Sea, to the south-western parts of the Indian subcontinent and on into southern Indochina and southern Japan. Despite its wide range, the Eurasian Woodcock is monotypic (there are no recognised races).

In Europe Eurasian Woodcocks are partly resident, partly migratory. The majority of the population (some 90% of the Eurpean population) breed in Fennoscandia and in north-western Russia. Eastward of about the river Rhine the entire population is migratory. In western Europe (France, Benelux, UK, Ireland) part of the population is sedentary. The winter quarters of the migratory population are mostly spread around the Mediterranean.

During the breeding season Eurasian Woodcocks are usually found in broad-leaved deciduous or mixed forest or woodland, preferably in large-scale contiguous forest with dense undergrowth, in which they nest. Within their territory they need damp areas for feeding.

I. Chisnall reports spotting a Eurasian Woodcock at Hartlepool Headland, Hartlepool, County Durham, England, in October 2021. Previously, males had occasionally been seen "roding" (i.e., performing display flights) in central England, but no photos were taken at the time.

All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by I. Chisnall.