| Madagascar snipe | |
|---|---|
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| Museum specimen | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Scolopacidae |
| Genus: | Gallinago |
| Species: | G. macrodactyla |
| Binomial name | |
| Gallinago macrodactyla Bonaparte, 1839 | |
The Madagascar snipe (Gallinago macrodactyla) is a small stocky wader. It breeds only in the humid eastern half of Madagascar, from sea-level up to 2,700 m, being more common above 700 m. It is non-migratory.
This is a large and heavy snipe 29–32 cm long with a stocky body and relatively short legs for a wader. Its upperparts, head and neck are streaked and patterned with bold dark brown stripes and gold edges to the feathers forming lines down its back. The belly is white, with some brown barring on the flanks but never on the belly. The blackish bill is very long, straight and fairly robust. The legs and feet are yellowish-olive to greenish-grey. The sexes are similar, and immature differ only in showing buff fringes on the wing coverts.
The Madagascar snipe makes a hoarse hlip call as it takes off. In flight, it has a narrow grey trailing edge on the wing and a very dark underwing.
The Madagascar snipe has never been recorded elsewhere, and no other snipe species have yet been recorded on Madagascar. Common snipe is smaller, has a paler underwing, and a white trailing edges on the wing. Pin-tailed snipe is similar in plumage to the Madagascar species, but is smaller, shorter-billed and shorter-tailed. African snipe is similar in build to the Madagascar Snipe, but has an obvious white trailing edge on the wing. All the snipes that are potential vagrants to Madagascar have a faster, lighter flight than the resident species.
The Madagascar snipe breeds in marshes, swamps, muddy areas, flooded fields and sometimes ricefields. It builds a saucer-shaped nest of dry grass in the drier areas of its breeding wetland. The nest is concealed in a dense tuft of grass or sedges. Breeding occurs from at least July to January.
This bird has a spectacular aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers.
The Madagascar snipe forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking invertebrates, such as insects and worms, seeds and plants. If alarmed, it freezes, and its cryptic plumage provides effective camouflage when the bird stands motionless amongst marsh vegetation. When flushed, it flies off with a zigzagging action.
This bird is uncommon, with the total population estimated at 1,800–7,500 individuals. It is found in small groups of 4–8.
The species is threatened by the increasing conversion of wetland-edge habitat to rice cultivation. For example, at the largest block of suitable wetland habitat in Madagascar, Lake Alaotra, 250 km2 (97 sq mi) of the 350 km2 (135 sq mi) surrounding the lake are now under rice production. The species is also threatened by hunting for food, for subsistence use or local trade.
The willet, formerly in the monotypic genus Catoptrophorus as Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper, and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus Tringa. Its closest relative is the lesser yellowlegs, a much smaller bird with a very different appearance apart from the fine, clear, and dense pattern of the neck, which both species show in breeding plumage. It breeds in North America and the West Indies and winters in southern North America, Central America, the West Indies and South America.
The common snipe is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World.
Wilson's snipe is a small, stocky shorebird. The genus name gallinago is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, "hen" and the suffix -ago, "resembling". The specific delicata is Latin for "dainty".
The long-billed dowitcher is a medium-sized shorebird with a relatively long bill belonging to the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. In breeding plumage, adults are characterized by a beautiful rufous head and underparts with a darker mottled back and a large white upper rump only seen in flight. They feed in various freshwater habitats with their bill underwater in a "sewing machine" motion and are known to have an exciting mating display where males chase females in flight. The genus, Limnodromus is Ancient Greek from limne, "marsh" and dromos, "racer". The specific scolopaceus is New Latin for "snipe-like", from Latin scolopax, scolopacis, a snipe or woodcock. The English name is from Iroquois and was first recorded in 1841.
Temminck's stint is a small wader. This bird's common name and Latin binomial commemorate the Dutch naturalist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds.
The small pratincole, little pratincole, or small Indian pratincole, is a small wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae.
The pin-tailed snipe or pintail snipe is a species of bird in the family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers.
Kittlitz's plover is a small shorebird in the family Charadriidae that breeds near coastal and inland saltmarshes, sandy or muddy riverbanks or alkaline grasslands with short vegetation. It is native to much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile Delta and Madagascar. It is thought to be mainly monogamous and has monomorphic plumage.
The puna snipe is a small, stocky wader. It breeds in the Andes of northern Peru to northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the South American snipe.
Latham's snipe, also known as the Japanese snipe, is a medium-sized, long-billed, migratory snipe of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.
Flufftails are small birds related to rails and finfoots. There are nine species, seven of which are distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, with the remaining two in Madagascar. The genus was long placed with the rail family Rallidae, but is now placed in the family Sarothruridae, along with three other species of wood rails.
The African snipe also known as the Ethiopian snipe, is a small stocky wader. It breeds in eastern and southern Africa in wet mountain moorland and swamps at altitudes of 1,700–4,000 m (5,600–13,100 ft). When not breeding it disperses widely, including into coastal lowlands.
The solitary snipe is a small stocky wader. It is found in the Palearctic from northeast Iran to Japan and Korea.
The Fuegian snipe also known as the cordilleran snipe, is a small stocky wader. It breeds in south-central Chile and Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego. It is mainly sedentary, but the Tierra del Fuego population winters in mainland Chile.
The Jameson's snipe or Andean snipe is a small, stocky wader. It breeds in the Andes in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. It appears to be entirely sedentary, with no evidence of migration.
The imperial snipe is a small stocky wader which breeds in the Andes. For a century it was known only from two specimens collected near Bogotá, Colombia, and was presumed extinct, but it was rediscovered in Peru in 1967 and Ecuador in 1988. It is not known if it is migratory.
The noble snipe is a small stocky wader. It breeds in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela above or just below the treeline. It is entirely sedentary.
The giant snipe is a stocky wader. It breeds in South America. The nominate subspecies G. u. undulata occurs in two distinct areas, one in Colombia, and the other from Venezuela through Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana to extreme north-eastern Brazil. The southern subspecies G. u. gigantea is found in eastern Bolivia, eastern Paraguay and south-east Brazil, and probably also in Uruguay and north-eastern Argentina.
The Madagascar plover, also known as the black-banded plover, is a small monogamous shorebird in the family Charadriidae, native to western Madagascar. It inhabits shores of lagoons, coastal grasslands, and breeds in salt marshes. These plovers mainly nest in open grassland and dry mudflats surrounding alkaline lakes. The species is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN because of its low breeding success, slow reproductive rate, and weak adaptation to increasing habitat loss, leading to declining population numbers.
The fire-capped tit is a small, 10 cm (3.9 in) long, weighing about 7 g (0.25 oz) bird species assigned to the family Paridae, that breeds in the temperate forest bordering the Himalayas to the south, in the Hengduan Shan and Nujiang Shan on the Myanmar-China border, the Micah Shan and Daba Shan on the Northern Sichuan border. It winters down hill and further south. Further to the east, birds tend to be smaller and the plumage becomes gradually darker.
