Snipe

Common Name: Common Snipe

Latin Name: Gallinago gallinago

Family: Scolopacidae

The cryptic brown plumage of the snipe can make it a difficult bird to see in the favoured thick grassland and moorland habitats. During the breeding season they often become somewhat easier to see as territorial birds will often perch up on fence posts or wall tops. With luck, it may also be possible to see their spectacular display flight as the birds fly over potentially suitable breeding areas, although it is often the bizarre whirring ‘drumming’ sound that first indicates that snipe are present. This sound is not actually birdsong; it is caused by air passing over specially shaped outer tail feathers that are spread out as the birds begin their display flights.

Snipe will nest in a variety of habitats from the fell tops right down to the valley bottoms where there are suitable areas of wet ground and thick vegetation. Survey work carried out as part of the Moorland Bird Survey of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in the early 1990s located approximately 900 pairs, whilst a survey of enclosed grassland below the moorland boundary in 2000 estimated that between 245 and 745 pairs of snipe were present. The number of breeding pairs of snipe in the Yorkshire Dales is clearly of national importance.

Websites:

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (opens in new window)