Dusky Woodcock

Dusky Woodcock
Dusky Woodcock
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Scolopax
Species: S. saturata
Binomial name
Scolopax saturata
Horsfield, 1821

The Dusky Woodcock or Rufous Woodcock, Scolopax saturata, is a small wader. It is smaller than Eurasian Woodcock, and has much darker plumage.

This species is restricted to wet mountain forests on Sumatra and Java. It nests on a bed of moss in light undergrowth. It has a "roding" display flight like Eurasian Woodcock, but the calls are different. It can be very tame.

The former New Guinean subspecies rosenbergii, described by Hermann Schlegel in 1871, is currently given a full species status.

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2004). Scolopax saturata. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened

Further reading

Shorebirds by Hayman, Marchant and Prater, ISBN 0-7099-2034-2