The Australian painted-snipe (''Rostratula australis'') is a medium-sized, long-billed, distinctively patterned

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

Taxonomy

The distinctiveness of the Australian painted-snipe was recognised by

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

in 1838 when he described and named it ''Rostratula australis''. However, it was subsequently lumped with the

greater painted-snipe The greater painted-snipe (''Rostratula benghalensis'') is a species of wader in the family Rostratulidae. It is found in marshes in Africa, South Asia and South-east Asia. Description Medium-sized, plump wading bird. Long reddish-brown bill, s ...

''Rostratula benghalensis''. More recently it has been shown that the differences between these taxa warrant recognition at the species level. Compared with the greater painted-snipe, the Australian painted-snipe: * has a longer wing, shorter bill and shorter tarsus * has a chocolate brown, rather than rufous, head and neck in the female * has round, rather than flat and visually barred, spots on the tail (female) and upper wing-coverts (male)

Description

The head, neck and upper breast is chocolate brown (in the male, dark grey with a buff median stripe on the crown), fading to rufous in the centre of the hindneck and merging to dark, barred grey on the back. There is a cream comma-shaped mark around the eye. A white stripe on the side of the breast and over the shoulders is diagnostic. The upperwing is grey (with buff spots in the male). The lower breast and underbody are white. Males are generally slightly smaller and less bright than females. Juveniles are similar to adult males. No call has been recorded. The length ranges from 24 to 30 cm, the wingspan from 50 to 54 cm, the weight from 125 to 130 g.

Distribution and habitat

The Australian painted-snipe is endemic to Australia, though its distribution is patchy and its presence in any particular area is unpredictable. A previous stronghold was the

Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...

. It frequents shallow, freshwater

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

with a thick cover of low vegetation, disappearing when conditions become unsuitable.

Conservation

The species has declined drastically during the 20th century and is rare throughout its range. Causes of the decline are ascribed to wetland drainage, river management and

salinisation Soil salinity is the salt content in the soil; the process of increasing the salt content is known as salinization. Salts occur naturally within soils and water. Salination can be caused by natural processes such as mineral weathering or by the ...

, as well as grazing and trampling of wetlands by stock. Estimates of the total population range from a few hundred to a few thousand. In Australia it is classified as being nationally threatened with a rating of Vulnerable. The IUCN recently split the species and treats it as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

Behaviour

Diet

Wetland

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s such as

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s; also seeds and other vegetation.

Breeding

Breeding painted-snipe prefer temporary but recently flooded wetlands, with low cover for shelter, shallow water and exposed mud for feeding, and small islands on which to nest. They nest in ground scrapes or on mounds in water, lined with grass, leaves and twigs, where they lay clutches of 3-4 cream-coloured eggs marked with black streaks. Incubation takes 15–16 days. The young are

precocial In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...

and

nidifugous In biology, nidifugous ( , ) organisms are those that leave the nest shortly after hatching or birth. The term is derived from Latin ''nidus'' for "nest" and ''fugere'', meaning "to flee". The terminology is most often used to describe birds and w ...

References

* Lane, B.A.; & Rogers, D.I. (2000). The Australian Painted Snipe, ''Rostratula (benghalensis) australis'': an Endangered species?. ''

Stilt Stilt is a common name for several species of birds in the family Recurvirostridae, which also includes those known as avocets. They are found in brackish or saline wetlands in warm or hot climates. They have extremely long legs, hence the grou ...

'' 36: 26-34 * Marchant, S.; Higgins, P.J.; & Davies, J.N. (eds). (1994). ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 2: Raptors to Lapwings''. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. * Oring, Lewis W.; Rogers, Danny; Oring, Kay E.; & Tzaros, Chris. (2004). Snipes in peril. ''

Wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

'' 14(4): 10–15.
Threatened Species Scientific Committee – advice to the Minister of Environment and Heritage on Australian Painted-snipe
Downloaded 5 Feb 2007 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1270108 Rostratula Birds of Australia Articles containing video clips Birds described in 1838 Taxa named by John Gould