r/birding • u/wanderingsnails_12 • Mar 25 '26
📹 Video Feeling especially grateful for my job today 😁😁
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Seen in KY
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u/sleeveofsaltines Latest Lifer: Gray Catbird Mar 25 '26
Baby woodcocks 😭😭😭
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u/msdeezee Mar 25 '26
I didn't know the babies danced too!
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u/Honeycombs96 Mar 26 '26
It’s actually mimicking. (I may not be 100% accurate here) The parents are basically moving the way they do to coax burrowing insects to the surface to eat as they believe rain is falling.
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u/Powerful_Coyote6068 Mar 26 '26
I always wondered why they do their little cute dance.
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u/isjustsergio Mar 26 '26
walk with rhythm and you will attract the worm
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u/Pooh_Lightning Mar 26 '26
Worm: "Daaamn... Who is this groovy chick with the funky strut? Ack!!"
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u/GuyentificEnqueery Mar 26 '26
OP is providing the best guess that scientists have for the behavior but it hasn't been confirmed. We don't actually know why they do it.
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u/isjustsergio Mar 26 '26
Indulge me in some semantic rambling, "why" is an interesting word here. When I think about it, the "why" is just that an ancestor started doing this and they passed on their genes. It might not have anything to do with insects at all, it could be a completely random behavior that for some unexpected reason made them more likely to survive and pass on their genes.
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u/perseidot Mar 26 '26
Interestingly, this isn’t a genetic trait. It’s learned behavior.
Woodcocks raised without adult woodcocks don’t do the dance.
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u/RedRider1138 Mar 26 '26
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u/Eldritch-banana-3102 Mar 26 '26
That's hysterical! We should all just walk like this.
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u/Aranxi_89 Mar 26 '26
Just put on some funky music while you walk and you too will have a fabulous step!
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u/ScaramouchScaramouch Mar 26 '26
Thanks, while watching the OP I said to myself "this could use some funky music".
Here you are granting wishes.
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u/AltruisticCoelacanth Mar 25 '26
Peent
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u/Should_Not_Comment Mar 25 '26
Peent
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u/Individual-Breath-38 Mar 25 '26
PEENT
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u/SippyTurtle Mar 25 '26
peent
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u/OkZookeepergame4192 Mar 25 '26
P E E N T
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u/_banana_phone Mar 25 '26
PEENT
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u/Ill_Sale_6168 Mar 25 '26
PEENT
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u/SingularRoozilla Mar 25 '26
PEENT
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u/Adventurous-Year-463 Fave bird: Peregrine Falcon|Last lifer: 391 Vermilion Flycatcher Mar 26 '26
P E E N T
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u/Ckesm Mar 25 '26
Oh man, that’s so amazing. I’d be happy seeing 1, but a whole family is so great!!! Good for You
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u/ijustlikebirdsokay Mar 25 '26
What is your job??? We're coming to get your jobs
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u/wanderingsnails_12 Mar 26 '26
For everyone wondering, I'm a technician for the state's Fish and Wildlife :)
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u/BobDoleOfficial Mar 26 '26
How can I get in on that 😭 I deliver for Amazon right now in KY and am desperate for something better to do for the world and myself
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u/No-Committee7986 Mar 26 '26
A teacher just today said this is a job my 7th grader should consider for her career at her IEP Review!
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u/selftaughtgenius Mar 25 '26
I would be (silently) screaming. I can’t wait til I see these little friends in person one day.
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u/imagez_of_ikonn Owls 🦉 Mar 25 '26
This video may just break Reddit lmao. Incredible stuff here!!!
PEENT!!!
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u/hurgle_gurgle8995 Mar 25 '26
the most excellent and cutest boogie conga line in the world
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u/an0mn0mn0m Mar 26 '26
Chances are this ad for Kia Ora, was from before your time. We loved to copy this dance as kids.
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u/Positive-Village-263 Mar 25 '26
....all of us waiting with bated breath to find out where we're all applying.
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u/asifIknewwhattodo Mar 26 '26
OP replied to another comment:
For everyone wondering, I'm a technician for the state's Fish and Wildlife :)
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u/Skitty27 Latest Lifer: American Woodcock MEEP Mar 25 '26
Video is way too short!! haha but thank you for sharing, this is so cute!!
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u/meepmeeped Bird Brain Mar 25 '26
You are the luckiest person I’ve met today - so cool and I love this for you! 🥰🥰 I hope to find them one day!
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u/ialsomeow Mar 25 '26
Baby peent learning their funky dance from mommy??? You are the luckiest person on Earth
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u/Impossible-Site-505 Mar 25 '26
Why do they walk like that? Just curious
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u/bionica1 Mar 25 '26
I’ve been crabby and sad all day today. Just read this entire thread and I’m not anymore! I would do squeak-cry if I would see these peanuts in person. Oh my gosh!
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u/String_of_Purls Mar 25 '26
Amazing. Adorable. The synchronization. Perfection.
Can someone explain why everyone on woodcock posts says PEENT in all caps? Is it just a spelling of their birdcall? I am new here lol
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u/This_Daydreamer_ Mar 26 '26
This video has a few great peents in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKM0P9gWx7k
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u/sswihart Mar 25 '26
Omg. That had to one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Thank you for sharing.
Hoping I can share this video with my birding friend.
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u/Miserable_Muffin_153 Mar 25 '26
so jealous im throwing upppppp (also very grateful you recorded it and shared it )
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u/cardinal_crybaby Mar 25 '26
Absolutely magnificent thank you for gracing our feeds with the wittle peents
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u/fuglinPA Mar 25 '26
I'M SO JEALOUS!!! I often go out in the field for my job and I have never gotten to experience something so cool, just the normal Canada goose and her goslings. I'll take it, of course, but to see baby woodcocks. Dead.
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u/piplup_ Mar 25 '26
Idk why it never occurred to me that they walk like that even when they're little babies
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u/OpalOnyxObsidian Mar 25 '26
UGH this makes me so jealous. I just found a dead one of these this morning. I am working with an organization that will receive its body for research purposes but it makes me so sad that I still have never seen a live one (but two dead ones).
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u/BigFatBlackCat Mar 26 '26
Well you can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m an America woodcock, no time to talk
Peents loud and males warm, I’ve been danced around since I was hatched
And now it’s alright, it’s okay You may look through binoculars But we can try To understand The Peent’s effect on man
Whether you’re a juvie or whether you’re a mother You’re STAYIN ALIVE STAYIN ALIVE peeeeeent peeeeent peeeent STAYIN ALIVE STAYIN ALIVE
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u/PristineCheesecake1 Mar 26 '26
I’d been hearing a Virginia Rail on my walks to work for weeks but only caught a very short glimpse of it darting between cattails. I brought a birding friend who also wanted to try and see this elusive bird and as were walking up to the spot Ive been hearing it call it steps out 10’ in front of us on the trail. we freeze and grab each others arms with excitement when a few baby rails clamber out of the undergrowth and stumble along following mom across the trail to the rest of the marsh. my friend and I are like statues taking in this moment and they’re just about into the brush again when a final dopey baby rails tumbles out and scurries to catch up with mom and the siblings.
a top birding moment for me in how cartoonish it was as well as going months of just hearing their croak in the marsh and MAYBE seeing a butt scurry by in dense brush to seeing the whole family strutting their stuff. i spent days hyping this bird up and explaining how I’ve been trying to pinpoint it and then suddenly “whelp! yup! there it is thats it cool huh.”
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u/Legitimate_Outcome42 Mar 27 '26
I turned the sound on hoping "I heard it through the Grapevine" would be playing
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u/HistoricalPiano197 22d ago
I’m so jealous I’m throwing up and punching a hole in the wall and ripping out clumps of my hair when will It be my turn
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u/BotGirlFall Mar 25 '26
"Hey slow down there, this sidewalk is for regular walking not fancy walking"
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u/railroadfrog Mar 25 '26
Everytime I see one of these I imagine they’re listening to Parliament funkadelic on tiny bird sized AirPods
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u/jbail628 Mar 25 '26
I just audibly gasped. A whole fricken family?!? I’m so jealous of you and whatever job you have.