Common Snipe

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iCommon Snipe

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Scolopacidae
Genus:	Gallinago
Species:	G. gallinago

Binomial name

Gallinago gallinago
Linnaeus, 1758

Subspecies

G. g. gallinago
G. g. faroeensis
G. g. delicata

The Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) is a small, stocky shorebird.

Their breeding habitat is marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows in Canada, the northern United States, Iceland, the Faroes, northern Europe and Russia. They nest in a well-hidden location on the ground.

The North American population migrates to the southern United States and to northern South America. It is a year-round resident on the Pacific coast of the United States.

European birds winter in southern Europe and Africa, and Asian migrants move to tropical southern Asia..

Adults are 23-28 cm in length with a 39-45 cm wingspan. They have short greenish-grey legs and a very long straight dark bill. The body is mottled brown on top and pale underneath. They have a dark stripe through the eye, with light stripes above and below it. The wings are pointed.

These birds forage in soft mud, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and earthworms, also plant material.

The male performs "winnowing" display during courtship, flying high in circles and then taking shallow dives to produce a distinctive sound. The North American population was reduced by hunting near the end of the 19th century and loss of habitat. However, this bird remains fairly common.

The New World form, G. g. delicata, is increasingly considered a separate species, Wilson's Snipe, G. delicata. It has a narrower white edge to the wings, and eight pairs of tail feathers instead on seven.

The two other races are G. g. faeroeensis in Iceland, the Faroes, Shetland and Orkney, and G. g. gallinago in the rest of the Old World. The latter one is among the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

This well camouflaged bird is usually shy and conceals itself close to ground vegetation and flushes only when approached closely. They fly off in a series of aerial zig-zags to confuse predators. Snipe hunters, therefore, needed to be very skilled to hunt these birds and they came to be called snipers - a term later adopted by the military.

[edit] Gallery

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2005). Gallinago gallinago. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
Bezener A. 2000. Birds of ontario. Edmonton: Lone Pine publishing. p.149