A stocky, long-billed, barrel-chested bird with complex patterns; rarely seen on the ground. If disturbed, flies off fast and low with noisy wingbeats.

Unusually for a wading bird the Woodcock is active between dusk and dawn and lives in woodland, not on the shore. More heavily built than a Snipe, with broader wings and a thicker bill, it is associated with deep leaf mould on the forest floor, beneath brambles, or sometimes under thick bracken on open slopes.