Biologists at the University of Arkansas are using a federal grant to track the migration of the familiar American woodcock, a bird whose population is slowly declining across eastern North America.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded nearly $50,000 for the project to the U.S. Geological Survey Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, which is housed in the University of Arkansas Department of Biological Sciences.
David Krementz, a research professor of biological sciences and leader of the fish and wildlife unit, says American woodcocks have been studied extensively in their breeding grounds, including the upper Midwest, New England and Canada, as well as their wintering grounds in the Southeast and Gulf Coast. But Krementz says there has been little research of the woodcocks during their migratory period.
