SWINHOE'S SNIPE

Photographed at Katherine, Northern Territory, January 2024

 

1335                       SWINHOE'S SNIPE                    Gallinago megala     

AUSTRALIA               811

Also known as Forest Snipe or Chinese Snipe. It breeds mainly in central and southern Siberia and Mongolia. The entire population migrates and spends the non-breeding season principally in eastern and southern India, Sri Lanka, south-eastern China, South-East Asia and New Guinea. It has been recorded on migration in eastern China and occasionally in Japan. Records in Australia are mainly from the Top End of the Northern Territory and from north-western Western Australia. Breeding habitat: forest glades and meadows. Non-breeding habitat: shallow freshwater wetlands of various kinds including paddy fields and sewage farms, with bare mud or shallow water for feeding, with nearby vegetation cover.