greater painted snipe

Spotted over the garden wall, i haven't seen him again.

Greater Painted Snipe (Female) The bird was very shy and came out of its hiding in the reeds ,momentarily. Captured in Mangaljodi Wetlands, Odisha, India

Visited my frequent birding patch, the drain water pool after a long time. At first I was disappointed to see just a few black-winged stilts & sandpipers, which also took off for some reason. Though I heard some unfamiliar bird call from the patch, I could not see anything. Loitered around a...

I was at the Drain Water Pool shooting some sandpipers. I took a snap of this one thinking it to be another sandpiper. After downloading the photos and sorting them out, realised this was no sandpiper. Looked up my reference book with no luck. Uploaded a photo and query on the forum search page...

This is a female painted snipe that i had the joy of photographing in The Gambia during my trip in January.. end of day sunlight and the dark recesses of the mangrove cove made laying face-down in the mud worthwhile :)

Greater Painted Snipe (24 cm) female left and male right. Shot these two in the muddy patch just outside the house after a typhoon.

When threatened the snipe spread himself wide with head down to make himself look bigger.

Nice to see this male out in the open in the late afternoon. There are juveniles around that he is raising but I did not see them in over 3 hours of waiting. Neil.

Looking at these birds I always have to remind myself that for a change the male bird is the drabber looking individual. I always have the tendency to look at the pretty coloured female and think it is the male. A nice example of sexual dimorphism in birds.