IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

The only call heard in HK is a quiet though harsh ‘charp’ when flushed, similar to that of Common Snipe.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Most records have involved single birds in scattered wooded localities, including shrubland or woodland in otherwise highly urbanized areas. Passage birds are recorded on Po Toi, though it appears to support few in winter.

OCCURRENCE

Eurasian Woodcock is a passage migrant and winter visitor. In autumn the earliest record is of one at southwest Lantau on 22 September 2019. Peak passage occurs in the second half of October and first week of November, with the wintering population established by at least the end of the month (Figure 1). The highest single-site counts are seven at Cloudy Hill on 25 November 1998 and 17 December 1999.

The wintering population remains fairly constant until the third week of January. Withdrawal of wintering birds and passage of migrants occurs into April, with the latest record on 19 April 1996.

Swinhoe (1861) refers to Eurasian Woodcock as being ‘abundant during winter’, though it is not clear if this refers to all of HK, Macau and Guangzhou, or just one part. Vaughan and Jones (1913) considered it to be a ‘regular, but never an abundant winter visitor’ from the beginning of November to mid-April. Aymas (1930) expected Eurasian Woodcock at the end of October, a week earlier in cold and damp weather, and stated that they remained until January or February. He continued that although found almost throughout the New Territories, they were not plentiful locally and ‘the sportsman who can gather a brace in his bag in a day’s shooting should consider himself very lucky’.

Anecdotal comments in HKBWS records indicate that numbers were possibly higher in the late 1950s as they include references to ‘four shot in one small area’ and ‘six shot in the Sha Tin valley from mid-October to the year-end’. In addition, late 1958 was a good Eurasian Woodcock season, ‘but not to be compared with before the war when it was possible for one gun to get double figures in an afternoon in the Shek Kong valley’; it should be noted, however, this contradicts the observation of Aymas (1930). References to hunting bags almost disappear from 1960 onwards and so it is not possible to make further comparison.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Forages in wooded areas along streams or where the ground is damp. Usually encountered when flushed from diurnal roosting sites, when with a clatter and whirring of wings it flies off steeply through the trees. It can also be seen when flying over woodland to foraging areas at dusk.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

Monotypic. Breeds from northwest Europe east through Scandinavia and Russia to Japan largely between 40oN and 65oN; winters in west, south and southeast Europe and north Africa to the Black and Caspian Sea areas, southwest India and the Himalayan foothills, and east through Indochina and south China to Honshu, Japan (Van Gils et al. 2020). In China breeds in northern Xinjiang, the far northeast and Sichuan, and winters from southern Tibet east through Yunnan and areas south of the Yangtze to Taiwan (Liu and Chen 2020).

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.