Common Snipe - BirdForum Opus

Gallinago gallinago

Photo by IanF

Dormans pool, Billingham

Identification

Brown back with creamy stripes. Striped head with cream central stripe. White belly, barred flanks.Long bill.<

Distribution

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

Taxonomy

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

Habitat

The breeding habitat is marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows in Iceland, the Faroes, northern Europe and Russia. Common Snipe nest in a well-hidden location on the ground.

Behaviour

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.

Song/Voice

Chipper Chipper

Bird Song

<flashmp3>Gallinago gallinago (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program

External Links

• View more images of Common Snipe in the gallery