From Opus

Photo by Askar Isabekov
Ile-Alatau National Park, Kazakhstan, January 2007

Gallinago solitaria

[edit] Identification

29-31 cm

• Upperparts, head and neck:
  • streaked with brownish stripes
  • pale feather edges form lines down the back
• White face
• Gingery breast
• White belly with brown barring on the flanks
• Bill:
  • brown and black
  • long, straight and fairly slender
• Legs and feet are yellowish-green to brown
  

Sexes are similar; females are larger

[edit] Distribution

Eastern and central Asia, in eastern Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized:^[1]

• G. s. solitaria:

• Breeds high mountains of central Asia; winters to Pakistan and north India

• G. s. japonica:

• Sakhalin and northeast China; winters Korea, Japan and east China

[edit] Habitat

River valleys, mountain bogs, marshes and swamps.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

Its nest is saucer-shaped and made of dry grass, hidden in a dense tuft of grass or sedges.

[edit] Diet

It forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking invertebrates, such as insects and worms, seeds and plants.

[edit] References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• View more images of this species on Orientalbirdimages