Alternative name: Chatham Islands Snipe
- Coenocorypha pusilla
Identification
19-20cm
- Rounded, mottled black, brown and rufous upperparts
- Cream lower breast and belly
- Crown black, brown and rufous stripes
- Long bill
Female paler
Juvenile less clearly marked
Distribution
Chatham Islands (Rangitara, Mangere and Star Keys), New Zealand.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species[1].
Habitat
Damp bush, forest, sedges inland.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet includes worms, amphipods, insects and larvae.
Breeding
They nest either in a shallow cup made from leaves, or in an unlined ground scrape. The 2-3 mottled pale pinkish-brown eggs are incubated for 19 days by both adults who also care for the young.
Vocalisation
Call: low trerk, trerk, trerk and queeyoo, queeyoo, queeyoo.
References
- Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
- ARKive
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Chatham Snipe. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Chatham_Snipe
