Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vertebrate > bird > Bird |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Non-breeding) / Vulnerable (Breeding) [NT(nbr) VU(br)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Scolopax rusticola |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Linnaeus, 1758 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Stanbury et al., 2021 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | 2023 breeding survey recorded a decline (-22.5 %) since 2003 but an increase (+19.4 %) since 2013. Eng WeBS trends (25 yr -10%, 10 yr -58%) |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Research needed to determine causes of decline. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Increased woodland management would benefit this species |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | Our understanding of the impacts of hunting on this species are constrained by the lack of a robust hunting bag reporting system (including data collection). |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Undertake research to determine the drivers of decline (including Woodland management change, impact of deer grazing, recreational disturbance).
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 10 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Continue development of bespoke Woodcock monitoring to determine population trends.
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Targeted monitoring
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments: Surveys repeated on a regular basis.
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.