Adults: Crown, dark brown with buffy white mesial stripe and eyebrow forming a distinctive pattern. Lores, brown bordered by a buff white stripe above and below. Mantle, back, wings, mottled dark brown and buffy with buffy edges to feathers forming stripes down the back. Eye, dark brown. Throat, white. Breast, undertail coverts, mottled dark brown and buff. Belly, white, with barred flanks. Tail, rufous subterminal band, white tip, that projects beyond wing tips when standing. Has 18 or fewer tail feathers and in folded wing longest tertial longer than longest primary, both finish well before the end of the uppertail coverts. Bill, olive at base, dark brown at tip. Legs, olive grey.
Other Names (World)
Latham's Snipe, Japanese Snipe, Common Snipe, Australian Snipe, Jack Snipe, New Holland Snipe
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Australia (NB), China (mainland) (NB), Indonesia (NB), Japan (B), Papua New Guinea (NB), Russia (Asian) (B), Taiwan (China) (NB).
Vagrant to Marshall Islands, New Zealand (NB), South Korea (NB).
Unknown to Hong Kong (China) (NB), Northern Mariana Islands.
Eastern Primorskiy, southern Sakhalin and southern Kuril Is south to Hokkaido and northern and central Honshu, and possibly Kyushu (southern Japan). Winters in eastern Australia and Tasmania; perhaps also small numbers in New Guinea.
Latham's Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) [XC284372]
by Marc Anderson from Bowral, New South Wales, Australia (alarm call, flight call)
Latham's Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) [XC155640]
by Frank Lambert from Lake Furen (site 2) Hokkaido, Japan (flight call, song)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds June - July in Japan.
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Nest
A depression in the ground.
Eggs (Guide)
3 - 4; yellow or brown, spotted and blotched with black, olive-brown and yellow-brown, particularly at the larger end; oval to pyriform; about 43 x 31 mm. Incubation: about 20 days; by female.
Young
Fledge in about 20 days.
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Australian Painted Snipe (Rostratula australis)
Smaller. Bill is shorter and slightly decurved, with a swollen tip.
Pin-tailed Snipe (Gallinago stenura)
Smaller. Very difficult to distinguish in the field. In hand, 24 - 28 tail feathers. In folded wing longest tertial is slightly longer than longest primary and ends about where the uppertail coverts finish. Bill, shorter and more slender and without a bulbous tip. Upperparts are duller, browner, more uniform, with narrower, fainter white lines on back.
Swinhoe's Snipe (Gallinago megala)
Smaller. Very difficult to distinguish in the field. In hand, 20+ tail feathers. In folded wing longst primary extends beyond longest tertial and ends well short of end of uppertail coverts.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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