Common Snipe
Gallinago gallinago
Family Scolopacidae

Bird # 345 - November 2011

This is a fairly common migrant. It measures 260 mm (10 1/4") long. The Common Snipe looks very similar to the Swinhoe's and Pintail Snipes. It can be told apart from the other 2 snipe species by its more erratic zig-zag flying when flushed and diving to land far away. It also has a conspicuous white trailing edge to wing that is visible when it is in flight.The Pintail Snipe has little or no white in the trailing edge of the wing and the Swinhoe's Snipe has a buff trailing edge to wing.

This is what it says in Identification of Pintail Snipe and Swinhoe's Snipe by Paul J Leader and Geoff J Carey: "An observer confronted with an unfamiliar snipe should have little difficulty in narrowing down the identification to Swinhoe’s Snipe/Pintail Snipe. In flight, both of these species can be readily separated from Common Snipe by the lack of a clearly defined white trailing edge to the secondaries; uniform underwings; more rounded wings; a heavier, more compact body; and a quite different call. On the ground, both species show a more bulging supercilium than Common Snipe, together with typically darker upperparts, a bill which is typicallyshorter and deeper based, and a shorter tail. Nonetheless, Leader (1999) discussed plumage variation within Common Snipe, and showed this to have been understated in the literature."

We were able to observe three Common Snipes over two days in a big grassy field in the middle of the Basco town plaza. There were puddles of water formed by the rain. A lot of other birds were also feeding on the bugs in the grass.