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Wilson's Snipe | Gallinago delicata
Amerikaanse watersnip | Agachadiza de Wilson | Narceja-de-wilson
Wilson's Snipe is the North American counterpart of Common Snipe and breeds in marshes from Alaska to the northern United States. In the guide area it is a winter visitor, most regular in Colombia and increasingly rare to the south. There it must be told from the native snipes, which are present all year.
Voice
On take-off a hoarse, rasping scaip, single or repeated. Otherwise silent in the guide area.
Recording: Lars Edenius — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
25–28 cm, with a long, straight bill and rather short, greenish grey legs. The head has dark and pale stripes; the dark brown back has prominent creamy longitudinal stripes. The neck and breast are spotted brown, the flanks barred black and the belly clean white. In flight a narrow white trailing edge to the secondaries and a dark, densely barred underwing; the tail is orange-brown with a dark band. The flight is fast and zigzagging. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Pantanal Snipe Gallinago paraguaiae is very similar, but is resident in the lowlands east of the Andes and has more white in the outer tail feathers. Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago has a broader white trailing edge and a paler underwing with white bars. Jameson's Snipe Gallinago jamesoni and Noble Snipe Gallinago nobilis are larger and heavier, with broader wings lacking a white trailing edge, and live in the highlands.
Habitat
Marshes, wet pastures, reedbeds and the muddy, vegetated shores of pools, rice fields and ditches; from the lowlands up to the wet grasslands of the Andes at around 3000 m. It probes soft ground for worms and insect larvae, mainly at dusk. It does not breed in the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia a scarce but regular winter visitor, mainly in the Caribbean lowlands and in the wetlands of the Andes, such as the plateau around Bogotá. In Ecuador rare, mainly in the north. In Peru very rare, with a few records. Not regularly recorded in Bolivia or the Galápagos. Outside the guide area it breeds in Alaska, Canada and the northern United States and winters south to Central America and northern South America.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From November to March walk the edges of marshes and wet pastures on the plateau around Bogotá; birds usually flush at the last moment, with a hoarse call and a zigzagging flight.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large breeding range and a large population.
Scientific name
Gallinago delicata | (Ord, 1825)
Ord described the species in 1825 as Scolopax delicata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Gallinago was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. The genus name is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe, from Latin gallina, 'hen', with the suffix -ago, 'resembling'. The species name is Latin delicatus, 'dainty'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pennsylvania, United States.