From Opus

Alternative name: Ethiopian Snipe

Photo by MybsPaarl Sewage Works, March 2005

Gallinago nigripennis

[edit] Identification

30-32 cm

• Brown upperparts, head and neck, streaked and patterned with bold dark brown stripes.
• Gold edges to the feathers form 'braces' down the back
• White belly, though there is some brown barring on the flanks
• Long pinkish-brown bill
• Yellowish-olive to greenish-grey legs and feet
  

Sexes similar
Immatures have pale fringes on the wing coverts

[edit] Distribution

Locally in highlands of eastern and southern Africa.
Western Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Swaziland

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies¹

• G. n. aequatorialis - Ethiopia to eastern Zaire, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique
• G. n. angolensis - Angola and Namibia to Zambia and western Zimbabwe
• G. n. nigripennis - Southern Mozambique and South Africa

[edit] Habitat

Wet mountain moorland and swamps.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

It builds a saucer-shaped nest of dry grass in the drier areas of marshes, concealed in a dense tuft of grass or rushes.

[edit] Diet

It forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking insects and worms.

[edit] References

1. Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019#Avibase
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links