Painted-snipes | Rostratulidae

Goudsnippen | Aguateros | Painted-snipes

A small family of three marsh birds with a long, slightly decurved bill, related to the waders. Only the South American Painted-snipe (Nycticryphes semicollaris) is recorded in this area, as a rare visitor in eastern Bolivia; its breeding range lies in Paraguay, southeastern Brazil, Argentina and Chile. It lives hidden in dense marsh grass and shows itself mainly at dusk. In painted-snipes the roles are reversed: the female is larger and more boldly marked and courts the male, while the male incubates and tends the young.