WILSON'S SNIPE

 

1384                    WILSON'S SNIPE.               Gallinago delicata

USA                 39

Wilson's snipe is a small, stocky shorebird. They breed in marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows in Canada and the northern United States and on the Chukchi Peninsula, Russia. They are year-round residents on the U.S. Pacific coast. The eastern population migrates to the southern United States, the Caribbean, and to northern South America. It may be that climate change causes these birds to move to their breeding range earlier and leave later than 100 years ago. 

They forage in soft mud, probing or picking up food by sight and eating insects, earthworms, and plant material. Well-camouflaged, they are usually shy and conceal themselves close to ground vegetation, flushing only when approached closely. They fly off in a series of aerial zig-zags to confuse predators.

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.

COMMON SNIPE

Subspecies gallinago, photographed March 2017

(*  894)                   COMMON SNIPE                    Gallinago gallinago  

SRI LANKA                   62

Found in marshes, wet paddy fields and vegetation at tank edges. 25-27 cm. Fairly rare but regular winter visitor to the lowlands.

COMMON SNIPE

Photographed at Beeshazar Wetlands, Nepal, March 2017

(* 894)              COMMON SNIPE               Gallinago gallinago

NEPAL            117

Found in marshes, wet fields and muddy edges to rivers and pools. 25-27 cm. Locally fairly common winter visitor and passage migrant.

AUSTRALIAN PAINTED SNIPE

Photographed at Lakes Road, Lake George, near Bungendong, NSW, February 2017

968                    AUSTRALIAN PAINTED SNIPE                  Rostratula benghalensis

AUSTRALIA              700

Found in well-vegetated shallows and margins of wetlands, dams, sewerage ponds; wet pastures, marshy areas, irrigation systems, lignum, tee-tree scrub, open timber. 22-30 cm, female bigger. Range mostly se Aust., s of Brisbane-Adelaide; scarce, erratic over much of inland., n. Q, Nt, and coastal WA; vagrant Tas., Rare. Dispersive or irruptive in response to rainfall, possibly part migratory, moving n into Q. in summer.

The female is the more brightly coloured one on the left.

PIN-TAILED SNIPE

Photographed on Cocos Islands December 2016

(937)               PIN-TAILED SNIPE              Gallinago stenura

AUSTRALIA (Cocos Islands)             (660)

Found in freshwater wetlands. 25-27 cm. Breeds in northern Russia and migrates to southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia; rare vagrant to N Australia.

COMMON SNIPE

Photographed in Singapore November 2016

894                  COMMON SNIPE              Gallinago gallinago

SINGAPORE               (37)

Fairly common winter visitor to freshwater marshes, wet grasslands and playing fields; sometimes seen foraging on muddy banks of streams and ditches. 26 cm. Breeds across Eurasia, from W Europe to NW India, NE China and E Russia;winters in Africa, Middle East and Indian sub-continent, east to S China and much of Southeast.

LATHAM'S SNIPE

Photographed near Geelong, Victoria, November 2014.

402        LATHAM'S SNIPE           Gallinago hardwickii

Australia              (276)

Also known as Australian or Japanese Snipe. 28-31 cm, bill 7.5 cm. Breeds in Japan and migrates to Australia for the summer, range in Australia from Perth up w coast and across the n. to the Gulf, from Cape York down e coast and across to Eyre Peninsular and some distance inland, all of Tasmania. Found on soft wet ground or shallow water with tussocks, wet parts of paddocks, seepage below dams, irrigated areas, sultans, bogs and mangrove fringes.