Gallinago gallinago
(Common Snipe)

Physical Description:
10 1/2-11 1/2" (26-29 cm). Black-brown, with buff-white stripes and red-brown dots and lines on the back and head. buff to white neck and breast streaked with brown; sides, flanks, and undertail coverts barred with brown. Short, orange tail is rounded. Extremely long, straight bill and short legs.

Similar Species- Dowitchers, American Woodcock

Song:
Call a scratchy zhak when flushed. Song, a measured chip-a, chip-a, chip-a, etc. In high aerial display, tail produces an eerie, pulsing huhuhuhuhuhuhuhu.

Distribution:
Breeds from northern Alaska, east through parts of Canada to Maritime Provinces, and south to southern Alaska, central California, eastern Arizona, New Mexico (probably), Colorado, and parts of Midwest, mid-Atlantic states, and New England. Winters from southern Alaska (rarely), southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Utah, central U.S., and Virginia, south to South America.

Found in wet, grassy, or marshy areas, from tundra to temperate lowlands and hilly regions. In winter and during migration, also found in wet meadows, flooded fields, bogs, swamps, moorlands, and marshy banks of rivers and lakes.

Diet:
Eats mostly insects (especially burrowing larvae), mollusks, crustaceans, and worms; sometimes eats seeds of sedges and grasses.

Ecology:
Nests in depression on ground, under concealing vegetation. When not breeding, forages singly or in loose groups. Feeds by probing into mud or soft soil, or taking some food on surface. Largely crepuscular in feeding, Nocturnal in migration. Usually roosts in flocks.

Female incubates 4 eggs (usually) for 17-20 days. Young leave nest soon after hatching, are tended by both parents in 2 separate groups, and are capable of sustained flight at about 20 days.

Conservation:

Element Code:	ABNNF18010
Status:	Game species
Global Rank:	G5
State Rank:	S5
National Rank:	N5B,N5N

Important State References:
No references are available at this time.