A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genus in the family Scolopacidae. They are distinguished by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and crypsis/camouflaging plumage. The snipes in the genus Gallinago have a nearly worldwide distribution, the genus jack snipe is restricted to Asia and Europe, and the snipes in the genus Coenocorypha are now found only in the outlying islands of New Zealand. The genus Lymnocryptes is more closely related to ( Scolopax) than it is to other snipes; with woodcocks included, the four genera form a monophyly group within the wider family Scolopacidae.
Behaviour
Snipe search for
in the mud with a "
sewing machine" action of their long bills. The sensitivity of the bill is caused by filaments belonging to the fifth pair of nerves, which run almost to the tip and open immediately under the soft cuticle in a series of cells; a similar adaptation is found in
; this adaptation gives this portion of the surface of the
premaxillary a honeycomb-like appearance; with these filaments the bird can sense its food in the mud without seeing it.
Diet
Snipe feed mainly on insect
larva. Other invertebrate prey include
,
, and
. The snipe's bill allows the very tip to remain closed while the snipe slurps up invertebrates.
Habitat
Snipe can be found in various types of wet marshy settings including
bogs,
swamps,
wet meadows, and along
, coast lines, and
ponds. Snipe settle in both areas with dense vegetation, and also marshy areas with patchy cover to hide from predators.
Hunting
Camouflage may enable snipe to remain undetected by hunters in
marsh. The bird is also highly alert and startled easily, rarely staying long in the open. If the snipe flies, hunters have difficulty wing-shooting due to the bird's erratic flight pattern.
The difficulties involved around hunting snipe gave rise to the military term sniper, which originally meant an expert hunter highly skilled in marksmanship and camouflaging, but later evolved to mean a sharpshooter or a shooter who makes distant shots from concealment.
See also
Footnotes
External links
