The Common Snipe

(Gallinago gallinago)

The Common Snipe is a stocky, short-legged, pointed-winged shorebird with a very long straight bill. Upperparts are a mottled brown of various shades striped and flecked with buffy white while its belly is white and its breast parts are buffy gray, spotted with grayish brown. Its flanks are barred with black, its legs and feet are greenish gray and its tail is black with a broad, brick-red subterminal bar. Adults are approximately 9 inches long; both sexes look similar and juvenile birds look much the same as adults.

The snipe has at least three vocal sounds. Two calls, which are only heard during the nesting season, are given when the bird is perched on the ground, a fence rail or taller tree stump. One is pleasing, like the piping of a frog, and the other is a harsh kuk-kuk-kuk. Both are repeated slowly, often for quite long periods. The third is a harsh, raspy scaip-scaip, repeated excitedly two or three times, chiefly when the bird is flushed from its feeding. This suddenly given and sometimes disconcerting note, heard at any season, is the one best known to hunters.

In breeding times the snipe is found in wet meadows where it builds its nest in a slight depression in a small mound slightly above normal water levels and lines it with dry grass. It lays four olive-green to light brown or buff eggs which are heavily blotched with dark or chocolate-brown chiefly around the larger end. Laying begins in early May and continues for about ten days.