timberdoodle

timberdoodle (tim-ber-DOOD-l, TIM-ber-dood-l) - n., the American woodcock (Scolopax minor, formerly Philohela minor).


It's the only woodcock of North America, but unlike most other sandpipers, it spends its time in wooded uplands. This is not its only wonderful name, being also called bogsucker, night partridge, brush snipe, hokumpoke, becasse, and Labrador twister -- but I think we can all agree that timberdoodle is by far the best name of all. Like many folk-names, origin is entirely obscure.


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.