Genetic variation was investigated among different populations of the European woodcock(Scolopax rusticola), using random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Thirty‐nine ethanol‐preserved livers of bagged woodcock were used from three different sites: Harg (Uppsala, Sweden) 17 individuals, Alessandria (northern Italy) 14 individuals, Sinop Peninsula (Black Sea, Turkey) 8 individuals. DNA extracted from livers was amplified by PCR using 10‐mer primers (Kit A, Operon Technologies), and amplification products were revealed by electrophoresis on agarose gel containing ethidium bromide. A total of 7 primers out of the 20 tested were selected and a total of 71 bands were scored for band‐sharing analyses. Bands were firstly considered as presence‐absence characters which allowed a pairwise similarity matrix and an UPGMA dendrogram to be built. The latter showed a clustering of samples from Turkey leading to their almost complete separation from those of Sweden, while the samples from Italy showed affinities both to the Turkish and Swedish ones. Bands were also treated as dominant markers of mendelian loci with two alleles, yielding allele frequencies, genetic diversity and genetic distances. Average within‐population diversity Hwwas higher than between‐populations diversity HB, i.e., there was a low differentiation among populations (FST= 0.14). Non‐metric measures of genetic distances (Nei, Nei modified by Hillis, Nei jackknifed) as well as metric measures (Rogers, Wright, Cavalli‐Sforza & Edwards) indicated that the two most divergent groups were those of Sweden and Turkey, while Italian samples were more similar to the former than to the latter. The RAPD genetic patterns obtained agree with bird allozyme data, although genetic distances are higher. In addition, RAPD data are consistent with woodcock migration routes. Hence RAPD markers seem to provide reliable indices of bird genetic diversity, and the method is proposed as a support for the development of bird management plans.