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 24 - 28 tail feathers and in folded wing longest tertial slightly longer than longest primary and ends about where uppertail coverts finish. Bill, olive at base, dark brown at tip. Legs, olive grey.
Other Names (World)
Pintail Snipe, Pin-tailed Snipe, Asiatic Snipe
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China (mainland), Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Iran [Islamic Republic of] (P), Japan, Kazakhstan (B), Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia (B), Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (B), Russia (European) (B) (P), Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan (China), Thailand, United Arab Emirates, USA, Vietnam.
Vagrant to Australia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Christmas Island, Comoros, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Tunisia, Yemen.
Unknown to Northern Mariana Islands.
North-central and eastern Russia, from Ural Mts through Siberia and Transbaikalia to Sea of Okhotsk. Winters from Indian Subcontinent and Maldives through Indochina to south-eastern China and Taiwan, and south to Philippines and western Indonesia. Also found irregularly in small numbers in Saudi Arabia, eastern Africa and Aldabra Is.
Population
Estimated population is 50,000 - 2,000,000 (2010).
Pin-tailed Snipe (Gallinago stenura) [XC860327]
by Christoph Bock from Tunkinskiy rayon, Buryatia, Russian Federation (song)
Pin-tailed Snipe (Gallinago stenura) [XC675003]
by Albert Lastukhin from Khonuu, Momskiy Natsional'nyy Ulus, Respublika Sakha (Yakutiya), Russian Federation (song)
Nest
A depression in the ground, lined with grass.
Subspecies
Genus formerly named Capella, as this name erroneously considered to pre-date Gallinago.
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Swinhoe's Snipe (Gallinago megala)
Similar size. 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. Bill, longer and thicker. Has white not buff trailing edge to wing.
Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)
Similar size. Eyebrow is narrower and buffer. Has a white trailing edge to wing. Underwing is whiter. All tail feathers are uniformly shaped. Flight is more erratic. Call is harsher.
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
BirdLife International Species Factsheet