Swinhoe's snipe, (''Gallinago megala''), also known as forest snipe or Chinese snipe, is a medium-sized (length 27–29 cm, wingspan 38–44 cm, weight 120 gm), long-billed, migratory

wader 245px, A flock of 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 mudflats in order to foraging, ...

. The common name commemorates the British naturalist

Robert Swinhoe Robert Swinhoe FRS (1 September 1836 – 28 October 1877) was an English diplomat and naturalist who worked as a Consul in Formosa. He catalogued many Southeast Asian birds, and several, such as Swinhoe's pheasant, are named after him. Biog ...

who first described the species in 1861.

Identification

It is identifiable as a ''Gallinago'' snipe by its cryptically patterned black, brown, buff and white plumage, but it is not easily distinguished from Latham's and pin-tailed snipe in the field. The species is commonly referred to as a ''cho suekyung'' in South Korea.

Distribution

It breeds mainly in central and southern

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

. The entire population migrates and spends the non-breeding season principally in eastern and southern

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, south-eastern China, South-East Asia and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. It has been recorded on migration in eastern China and occasionally in Japan. Records in Australia are mainly from the Top End of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

and from north-western

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

Habitat

Breeding habitat: forest glades and meadows. Non-breeding habitat: shallow freshwater

wetland 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 ...

s of various kinds including

paddy field A paddy field is a flooded field of arable land used for growing semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in southern China, associated with pre ...

s and sewage farms, with bare mud or shallow water for feeding, with nearby vegetation cover.

Food

Mainly small invertebrates including

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. ...

mollusk 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 es ...

s and

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 ...

Breeding

Display flights and drumming by the males.

Conservation

Because of wide range and no evidence of significant population decline, the species is assessed as being of least concern.

References

* BirdLife International. (2006). Species factsheet: ''Gallinago megala''. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 9 February 2007 * Higgins, P.J.; & Davies, J.N. (eds). (1996). ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3: Snipe to Pigeons''. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. * Lane, Brett; & Davies, Jeff. (1987). ''Shorebirds in Australia''. RAOU: Melbourne. * National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. (1987). ''The Shorebirds of Australia''. Angus & Robertson: Sydney.

Identification

Distribution

Habitat

Food

Breeding

Conservation

References

Further reading

Identification