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.
Population
Estimated population is 25,000 - 100,000 (2010).
Latham's Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) [XC488222]
by nick talbot from Hokkaido (near Kushiro-shi), Hokkaid\u014d, Japan (flight call)
Latham's Snipe (Gallinago hardwickii) [XC146043]
by Sander Bot from Vaninskiy rayon, Khabarovsk Krai, Russian Federation (song)
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
Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)
Smaller. Tail is shorter. Flight is more erratic. Has a white trailing edge to wing.
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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BirdLife International Species Factsheet