Snipe
| Snipe | |
|---|---|
| |
| Pin-tailed snipe (Gallinago stenura) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | |
| Family: | Scolopacidae |
| Genera | |
| |
A snipe is any of about 26
painted snipe
are not closely related to the typical snipes, and are placed in their own family, the Rostratulidae.
Behaviour
Snipes search for
premaxillaries a honeycomb-like appearance: with these filaments the bird can sense its food in the mud without seeing it.[1]
Diet
Snipes feed mainly on insect
crustacea, and worms. The snipe's bill allows the very tip to remain closed while the snipe slurps up invertebrates.[2]
Habitat
Snipes can be found in various types of wet marshy settings including
ponds. Snipes avoid settling in areas with dense vegetation, but rather seek marshy areas with patchy cover to hide from predators.[2]
Hunting
Camouflage may enable snipes to remain undetected by hunters in marshland. 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 snipes gave rise to the military term camouflaging, but later evolved to mean a sharpshooter or a shooter who makes distant shots from concealment.[3][4]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Newton, Alfred (1911). "Snipe". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b "Wilson's Snipe, Life History, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology".
- ^ "sniper (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ISBN 0313294909.
External links
Look up snipe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Snipe videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Snipe sonogram at fssbirding.org.uk