Pin-tailed Snipe
A species of Typical Snipes and Woodcock-snipes Scientific name : Gallinago stenura Genus : Typical Snipes and Woodcock-snipes
Pin-tailed Snipe, A species of Typical Snipes and Woodcock-snipes
Botanical name: Gallinago stenura
Genus: Typical Snipes and Woodcock-snipes
Content
Description General Info
Photo By Afsarnayakkan , used under CC-BY-SA-3.0 /Cropped and compressed from original
Description
This 25–27 cm long bird is similar to the longer-billed and longer-tailed common snipe. Adults have short greenish-grey legs and a long straight dark bill. The body is mottled brown on top, with cream lines down their back. They are pale underneath with a streaked buff breast and white belly. They have a dark stripe through the eye, with light stripes above and below it. Sexes are similar, and immatures differ only in minor plumage details. The wings are less pointed than common snipe, and lack the white trailing edge of that species. The shorter tail and flatter flight path when flushed also made flight separation from Common relatively easy. Male pin-tailed snipes often display in a group, with a loud repetitive tcheka song which has a crescendo of fizzing and buzzing sounds, and also whistling noises produced in flight by the pin-like outer tail feathers which give this species its English name. The normal call is a weak squik.
Size
25 cm (10 in)
Colors
Brown
Black
Gray
White
Feeding Habits
Pin-tailed Snipe primarily eats insects and earthworms, occasionally consuming plant material. It forages by probing soft soils with its long bill, adapted for detecting and extracting prey. Its diet and behavior demonstrate specialized feeding techniques.
Habitat
The pin-tailed Snipe predominantly inhabits Arctic and boreal wetlands, with a preference for damp meadows and shrub tundra characterized by dwarf birch during the breeding season. They are found at elevations up to 2500 meters along the tree-line. Outside the breeding season, the pin-tailed Snipe frequents a variety of wetland areas including flooded rice fields, wet grasslands, and marshlands, often feeding along muddy shorelines and stream banks. These birds also migrate across high-altitude regions such as the Tibetan plateau, with occasional winter sightings as high as 3750 meters.
Dite type
Insectivorous
General Info
Distribution Area
It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season in southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia. It is the most common migrant snipe in southern India, Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. It is a vagrant to north-western and northern Australia, and to Kenya in East Africa.
Species Status
Not globally threatened.
Photo By Afsarnayakkan , used under CC-BY-SA-3.0 /Cropped and compressed from original