The giant snipe (''Gallinago undulata'') is a stocky
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 ...
. It breeds in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. The nominate subspecies ''G. u. undulata'' occurs in two distinct areas, one in
Colombia, and the other from
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
through
Guyana,
Suriname and
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...
to extreme north-eastern
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The southern subspecies ''G. u. gigantea'' is found in eastern
Bolivia, eastern
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
and south-east Brazil, and probably also in
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and north-eastern Argentina.
It occurs in tall vegetation in swamps and flooded grasslands, and occasionally in dry savannah. It ranges from the lowlands up to 2,200 m altitude.
It seems to arrive in some areas after rain, but its
seasonal movements are very poorly understood.
Taxonomy
The giant snipe was described by the French polymath
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste.
His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent ...
in 1780 in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen collected in
Cayenne,
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...
. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by
François-Nicolas Martinet François-Nicolas Martinet (1731 - 1800) was a French engineer, engraver and naturalist.
Martinet engraved the plates for numerous works on natural history, especially ornithology. Notable in particular are those for ''l'Ornithologia, sive Synop ...
in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of
Edme-Louis Daubenton
Edme-Louis Daubenton (12 August 1730 – 12 December 1785) was a French naturalist.
Daubenton was the cousin of another French naturalist, Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton. Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon engaged Edme-Louis Daubenton to su ...
to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist
Pieter Boddaert
Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and naturalist.
Early life, family and education
Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D. at the Univers ...
coined the
binomial name ''Scolopax undulata'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enluminées''. The giant snipe is now placed in the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
''
Gallinago
''Gallinago'' is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 18 species.
Taxonomy
The name ''Gallinago'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 as a subdivision of the genus ''Scolopax''. Bri ...
'' that was introduced by the French zoologist
Mathurin Jacques Brisson
Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.
Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...
in 1760.
The generic name is
New Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
for a
woodcock
The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...
or
snipe
A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a ...
from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''gallina'', "hen" and the suffix ''-ago'', "resembling". The
specific epithet ''undulatus'' is Latin for "with wave-like markings".
Two
subspecies are recognised:
[
* ''G. u. undulata'' (]Boddaert
Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and naturalist.
Early life, family and education
Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D. at the Univers ...
, 1783) – Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, north Brazil
* ''G. u. gigantea'' (Temminck
Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch aristocrat, zoologist and museum director.
Biography
Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic. From his father, Jacob Temmin ...
, 1826) – east Bolivia to Paraguay, southeast Brazil and northeast Argentina
Description
This is the largest snipe
A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a ...
at in length. ''G. u. gigantea'', as its name suggests, is larger than the nominate subspecies with little overlap in size; for example, its bill length is usually more than , whereas ''G. u. undulata'' is usually less than and total length is up to about . Body mass in the nominate subspecies is from , averaging in males and , while in ''G. u. gigantea'', body mass is known to range from .
The giant snipe has a stocky body and relatively short legs for a wader. It has broad rounded wings like a woodcock
The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...
and a very long bill. Its upperparts, head and neck are streaked and patterned with black and brown, and chestnut edges to the feathers form distinct lines down its back. The belly is white with brown barring on the flanks. The flight feathers are barred, a feature unique to this snipe. The horn-coloured bill is very long and straight. The legs and feet are greyish-green.
No plumage differences related to age or sex are known, but in other snipe the sexes are similar and immature birds differ only in showing pale fringes on the wing coverts.
The giant snipe has a ''kek-kek'' call when flushed, and a rasping trisyllabic call is given in its nocturnal display flight.
Giant snipe can be distinguished from the sympatric common and the Magellan snipe
The Magellanic snipe (''Gallinago magellanica'') is a bird in tribe Scolopancinai and subfamily Scolopacinae of family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers and relatives.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and Bir ...
by its huge size and rounded wings. The other large species, Andean
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...
, Fuegian
Fuegians are the indigenous inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. In English, the term originally referred to the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego. In Spanish, the term ''fueguino'' can refer to any person fro ...
and imperial snipe
The imperial snipe (''Gallinago imperialis'') is a small stocky wader which breeds in the Andes. For a century it was known only from two specimens collected near Bogotá, Colombia, and was presumed extinct, but it was rediscovered in Peru in 1 ...
, are upland species which lack the well-defined upperpart markings and white belly shown by giant snipe. The noble snipe
The noble snipe (''Gallinago nobilis'') is a small stocky wader. It breeds in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela above or just below the treeline. It is entirely sedentary.
Description
This 30–32.5 cm long snipe has a ...
is more similar to giant, but obviously smaller-bodied.
Behaviour
Nests of the southern race have been found in Brazil in September and from November to early January. They are placed on a hillock between swamps, and 2–4 eggs are laid. No nests of the nominate subspecies have been found.
This species is rarely seen on the ground, and its habitat, reluctance to flush until almost trodden on, cryptic plumage, and nocturnal feeding mean its habits are almost unknown. Its diet apparently includes frogs. The giant snipe is usually seen alone when flushed.
Other ''Gallinago'' snipes have an aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming
Drumming may refer to:
* the act of playing the drums or other percussion instruments
* Drummer, a musician who plays a drum, drum kit, or drums
* ''Drumming'' (Reich), a musical composition written by Steve Reich in 1971 for percussion ensemble
...
sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers. This species displays at night, but it is not known whether it drums.
Status
The giant snipe is hunted through most of its range, its large size making it easier to shoot than other snipes. Habitat loss is also a threat, at least in part of its range. It is nowhere common, and is local and uncommon in Colombia and Venezuela, but its nocturnal habits and extremely secretive behaviour might exaggerate its apparent scarcity, and it is currently not thought to be threatened.
References
*Hayman, Marchant and Prater, ''Shorebirds''
BirdLife International
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1265549
giant snipe
Birds of Colombia
Birds of Venezuela
Birds of the Guianas
Birds of Brazil
Birds of Paraguay
giant snipe
Taxa named by Pieter Boddaert