Wilson's Snipe vs Common Snipe (1 Viewer)

[Dave S]

Can someone explain if these are different snipes? The "wilson's snipe" is listed on pg. 172 of "The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America" with the latin name "Gallinago delicata". I then looked in my "Smithsonian Handbooks: Birds of North America Western Region" book on pg. 273 and find a "common snipe" with the latin name "Gallinago gallinago" that looks very similar, though not exactly the same. Earlier I'd ID'd the bird in the first picture as a common snipe. The question is if the bird in the second picture is the same, or if it's a "wilson's snipe". It does look more like the bird drawn in Sibley that it looks like the snipe shown in the other book.

 

[Darrell Clegg]

Dave,
All your Snipes will be Wilson's Snipe.

What has happened is that both the European and American Snipe were called Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago. The North American bird was thought to be a sub-species of the European.

Recently however The North American Snipe has been given species status - based on differences such as the fact that the two have a different number of tail feathers!!

Older identification books will therefore call the bird Common Snipe, and newer guides will call it Wilson's Snipe - the new species name.

 

[Grousemore]

here's a link that may be useful in considering the differences between the two.
(Thanks to Glen Tepke from an earlier Thread)

http://www.oceanwanderers.com/WISNP.html

 

[mountain man]

What happened to the Wilson's on Scilly in the end? Was it just rejected or pending?

 

[Larry Lade]

It seems that as time goes on and new information becomes available birds' names change. In Peterson's "A Field Guide to the Birds", (second revised and enlarged edition) he called the snipe a Wilson's Snipe, Capella gallinago delicata. Sometime later the name for "our" snipe was changed to Common Snipe, Gallinago gallinago (National Geographic Society, Birds of North America, 2nd Ed. and 3rd Ed.). Now the bird's common name has been changed back to what it was before, Wilson's Snipe. I recall a couple of other birds whose names have been treated similarly. Green Heron to Green-backed Heron back to Green Heron. And Baltimore Oriole to Northern Oriole and back to Baltimore Oriole. I believe it does get a little confusing for some birders who have been at our hobby for a long time (they have seen the names of some birds change quite a few times). They remember names like American Egret or Great White Egret that is now Great Egret. We who have not been birding for as long do not have as many name changes to worry about. Some of the older birders I know still call out names like Myrtle Warbler (a.k.a. Yellow-rumped Warbler, Myrtle race), Sparrow Hawk for American Kestrel, etc. I guess all this just "keeps us on our toes"!

 

[Dave S]

Times like this it's confusing for people just getting into it too. None of the books mention both names... just one or the other. Thanks for the help.

Dave