- Gallinago media
Identification
27–29 cm (10½-11½ in)
- White tips on wing-coverts
Distribution
Breeds in northern Palearctic; winters to sub-Saharan Africa.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species[1].
Habitat
Marshland, pasture and wetland.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet consists mostly of worms and beetles; also seeds.
Movement
Migratory: recent results show that Great Snipe regularly fly non-stop from northern Europe to sub-Saharan Africa, with the longest such flight being 6800 km during 84 hours for a speed of about 96 km/hour. Returning in spring, there seemed to be a non-stop flight across Sahara to Balkan where the birds fed before continuing north.
Vocalisation
Lekking: in the last seconds of its display it blows up like a balloon and makes a pit-pit-pit-prrrrrrrr - sound before the chest returns to normal.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- BF Member Observations
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved August 2014)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2023) Great Snipe. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 September 2023 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Great_Snipe
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
