Snipe

Last updated

Snipe
Common snipe fencepost.jpg
Pin-tailed snipe (Gallinago stenura)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Genera

A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/camouflaging plumage. The Gallinago snipes have a nearly worldwide distribution, the Lymnocryptes snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe and the Coenocorypha snipes are found only in the outlying islands of New Zealand. The four species of painted snipe are not closely related to the typical snipes, and are placed in their own family, the Rostratulidae.

Contents

Behaviour

Snipes search for invertebrates in the mud with a "sewing-machine" action of their long bills. The sensitivity of the bill is caused by filaments belonging to the fifth pair of nerves, which run almost to the tip and open immediately under the soft cuticle in a series of cells; a similar adaptation is found in sandpipers; this adaptation gives this portion of the surface of the premaxillaries a honeycomb-like appearance: with these filaments the bird can sense its food in the mud without seeing it. [1]

Diet

Snipes feed mainly on insect larva. Other invertebrate prey include snails, crustacea, and worms. The snipe's bill allows the very tip to remain closed while the snipe slurps up invertebrates. [2]

Habitat

Snipes can be found in various types of wet marshy settings including bogs, swamps, wet meadows, and along rivers, coast lines, and ponds. Snipes avoid settling in areas with dense vegetation, but rather seek marshy areas with patchy cover to hide from predators. [2]

Hunting

Depiction of a snipe hunter, by A. B. Frost Bay Snipe, by A B Frost from Shooting Pictures, by Scribner & Sons, 1895.jpeg
Depiction of a snipe hunter, by A. B. Frost

Camouflage may enable snipes to remain undetected by hunters in marshland. The bird is also highly alert and startled easily, rarely staying long in the open. If the snipe flies, hunters have difficulty wing-shooting due to the bird's erratic flight pattern.

The difficulties involved around hunting snipes gave rise to the military term sniper , which originally meant an expert hunter highly skilled in marksmanship and camouflaging, but later evolved to mean a sharpshooter or a shooter who makes distant shots from concealment. [3] [4]

Snipe in Water, by Ohara Koson. Japan, 1900-1930 Snip in water, RP-P-1999-368.jpg
Snipe in Water, by Ohara Koson. Japan, 1900-1930

See also

Footnotes

  1. Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Newton, Alfred (1911). "Snipe". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  2. 1 2 "Wilson's Snipe, Life History, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology".
  3. "sniper (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  4. Palmatier, Robert Allen (1995). Speaking of Animals: A Dictionary of Animal Metaphors. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing. p. 357. ISBN   0313294909.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stamen</span> Male organ of a flower

The stamen is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandpiper</span> Family of birds

Scolopacidae is a large family of shorebirds, or waders, which mainly includes many species known as sandpipers, but also others such as curlews and snipes. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Different lengths of bills enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skua</span> Family of birds

The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus Stercorarius, the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the Arctic skua, the long-tailed skua, and the pomarine skua, are called jaegers in North American English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern shoveler</span> Species of bird

The northern shoveler, known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It is a rare vagrant to Australia. In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodcock</span> Genus of birds

The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus Scolopax. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name is first recorded in about 1050. According to the Harleian Miscellany, a group of woodcocks is called a "fall".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian curlew</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian curlew or common curlew is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred to just as the "curlew", and in Scotland known as the "whaup" in Scots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common snipe</span> Species of bird

The common snipe is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilson's snipe</span> Species of bird

Wilson's snipe is a small, stocky shorebird. The generic name Gallinago is Neo-Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, "hen" and the suffix -ago, "resembling". The specific name delicata is Latin for "dainty".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short-billed dowitcher</span> Species of bird

The short-billed dowitcher, like its congener the long-billed dowitcher, is a medium-sized, stocky, long-billed shorebird in the family Scolopacidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack snipe</span> Species of bird

The jack snipe or jacksnipe is a small stocky wader. It is the smallest snipe, and the only member of the genus Lymnocryptes. Features such as its sternum make it quite distinct from other snipes or woodcocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great snipe</span> Species of bird

The great snipe is a small stocky wader in the genus Gallinago. This bird's breeding habitat is marshes and wet meadows with short vegetation in north-eastern Europe, including north-western Russia. Great snipes are migratory, wintering in Africa. The European breeding population is in steep decline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-necked stint</span> Species of bird

The red-necked stint is a small migratory wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ruficollis is from Latin rufus, "red" and collum, "neck".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game (hunting)</span> Wild animals under pursuit or taken in hunting

Game or quarry is any wild animal hunted for animal products, for recreation ("sporting"), or for trophies. The species of animals hunted as game varies in different parts of the world and by different local jurisdictions, though most are terrestrial mammals and birds. Fish caught non-commercially are also referred to as game fish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waterfowl hunting</span> Practice of hunting waterfowl for food and sport

Waterfowl hunting is the practice of hunting aquatic birds such as ducks, geese and other waterfowls or shorebirds for food and sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African snipe</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madagascar snipe</span> Species of bird

The Madagascar snipe 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solitary snipe</span> Species of bird

The solitary snipe is a small stocky wader. It is found in the Palearctic from northeast Iran to Japan and Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jameson's snipe</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noble snipe</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-toed lapwing</span> Species of bird

The long-toed lapwing , also known as the long-toed plover, is a species of wading bird in the lapwing subfamily, within the family Charadriidae. It is mainly sedentary and found across central and eastern Africa, from Chad and South Sudan in the north to Mozambique in the southeast of its range. It is one of 13 species of ground-nesting lapwings found in Africa.