Wilson's Snipe

Gallinago delicate

A bird you may not know is a great sign of spring, is the Wilson’s Snipe! Of course, if you aren’t looking, or don’t have a keen eye, you may never know they are even around.

The old practical joke of a snipe hunt involves getting someone to wait out in a marsh at night, holding a bag, with promises of flushing a snipe into the bag. This is not a recommended technique for seeing snipe: a much better way is to look for the birds in open wetlands during spring and summer. Listen and watch for their aerial winnowing displays, performed high in the sky by fast-flying, swooping birds. When they’re not flying, these birds often perch and call from fence posts and other exposed spots. In migration and during winter, carefully scan the edges of muddy ponds, ephemeral pools of rainwater, ditches, small streams, and other such places. These birds tend to be most active around dawn and dusk.

They forage mostly by methodically probing in soft mud; their bill tip is sensitive and flexible,

allowing the snipe to detect and capture prey underground. They also capture some food in shallow water or from the surface of the ground. The bill’s flexible tip can open to grasp food while the base of the bill stays closed. Snipe can slurp small prey from the mud without having to remove their bill from the soil.

Wilson’s Snipe look so stocky thanks in part to the extra-large pectoral (breast) muscles that make up nearly a quarter of the bird’s weight—the highest percent of all shorebirds. Thanks to their massive flight muscles this chunky sandpiper can reach speeds estimated at 60 miles an hour.

Wilson’s Snipes are medium-sized, pudgy shorebirds with short, stocky legs. Related to the famous American Woodcock, which is known for it’s head bobbing – possibly the vibration from this will disturb earthworms into moving; it has been suggested that the woodcock can hear sounds of creatures moving underground. The bill of a snipe is straight and very long (several times the length of the head). The head is rounded and the tail is short. They’re intricately patterned in buff and brown stripes and bars. The dark head has prominent stripes. The dark back has three long buffy streaks, one running down each edge, one down the center. The buff chest is streaked and spotted with brown; the sides are heavily barred with black. In flight, the wings are dark from above and below.

The Wilson’s Snipe becomes more flamboyant in the breeding season, when it often yammers from atop a fencepost or dead tree. During breeding season, especially at night, males perform a “winnowing” display where they fly in high circles, periodically making shallow dives. During the dive, vibrations of the outer tail feathers produces a hollow whinnying sound. In aggressive and distraction displays on the ground, they crouch, raising and spreading their tail to show off their pattern.

Did You Know? Researchers have done wind tunnel tests with Wilson’s Snipe feathers to try and duplicate the “winnowing” sound that’s made as birds fly with their tail feathers fanned. They found that it’s the outermost tail feathers, or rectrices, that generate the sound, which apparently happens at airspeeds of about 25 miles per hour.

-Samantha Zeiner, Administrative Assistant FRNWR

Photos individually credited