A bulky bird with short legs and a long bill, the woodcock’s mottled buff, brown and black plumage provides it with perfect camouflage as it sits motionless in the leaf litter of the woodland floor with its large eyes high on the sides of the head giving a 360-degree vision.
They are almost impossible to spot and can be notoriously difficult to flush, especially when they are brooding. Once persuaded into the air, however, the rufous rump becomes more obvious as the bird departs with whirring wings and the erratic fluttering flight that shooters consider such a challenge.
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