Eastern Aleutians and Alaska east through Canada to Newfoundland, and south to central California, New Mexico, central Iowa and New Jersey; winters from north-western and central USA through Central America and Greater Antilles to northern South America.
Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata) [XC21809]
by Paul Driver from Pacific Creek, Grand Teton NP, Wyoming, United States (song, display songs)
Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata) [XC139910]
by Bird Studies Canada - Prairie and Parkland Marsh Monitoring Program (PPMMP) from University of Wyoming (near Laramie), Albany, Wyoming, United States (call)
Nest
On the ground, concealed by thick vegetation, in a damp area.
Subspecies
Gallinago gallinago (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split into Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) and Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata) by Banks et al. (2002), on the basis of 'differences in the winnowing display sounds and morphology', and recognised as separate by AOU (2002) and SACC (2005), but this treatment is not followed by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group because the morphological differences are limited to the number and width of tail feathers and, as Mueller (1999) makes clear, there is overlap between the two forms in these characters.
Consider by some authors to be a subspecies of Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago).
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago).