Guide to North American Birds

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Wilson's Snipe

Gallinago delicata

Often overlooked in migration and winter, the snipe is a solitary creature of wet fields and bogs, seldom seen on open mudflats. Flushed from the marsh, it darts away in zigzag flight, uttering harsh notes. The Wilson's Snipe becomes more flamboyant in the breeding season, when it often yammers from atop a fencepost or dead tree. At night on the nesting grounds, the ghostly winnowing flight sound of the males often echoes across the marshes.

Conservation status	Probably far more abundant at one time, reduced by market hunting in late 19th century and by loss of habitat; however, still widespread and common.
Family	Sandpipers
Habitat	Marshes, bogs, wet meadows. In migration and winter found in a variety of damp habitats including fresh and salt marshes, muddy banks of rivers and ponds, wet pastures, flooded agricultural fields. In breeding season mostly around fresh marshes and bogs, shrubby streamsides, northern tundra.

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Feeding Behavior

Forages mostly by probing in soft mud; bill tip is sensitive and flexible, allowing the snipe to detect and capture prey underground. Also captures some food in shallow water or from surface of ground.

Eggs

4, sometimes 3. Brown to olive-buff, marked with dark brown. Incubation is by female only, 18-21 days. Young: Downy young leave nest shortly after hatching. Parents may split brood, each caring for 1-2 of the chicks. Parents feed young at first, before they learn to find own food. Age at first flight about 19-20 days.

Young

Downy young leave nest shortly after hatching. Parents may split brood, each caring for 1-2 of the chicks. Parents feed young at first, before they learn to find own food. Age at first flight about 19-20 days.

Diet

Mostly insects and earthworms. Eats many insects that burrow in damp soil or live in shallow water, such as larvae of crane flies, horse flies, various beetles, many others. At some places, diet includes many earthworms. Also eats some leeches, crustaceans, mollusks, spiders, frogs, leaves, seeds.

Nesting

In breeding season, especially at night, male performs "winnowing" display: flies in high circles, periodically making shallow dives; during dive, vibration of outer tail feathers produces a hollow whinnying sound. In aggressive and distraction displays on ground, bird crouches, raising and spreading tail to show off pattern. Nest site is on ground, usually well hidden in clump of grass or buried in tundra vegetation. Nest (built by female) is shallow depression lined with fine grasses, leaves, moss, sometimes with overhanging plants woven into a kind of canopy.

Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

Migration

Winters commonly in North America, but some travel longer distances; birds banded in Canada have reached Lesser Antilles and South America. Probably migrates alone, not in flocks.

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Migration

Winters commonly in North America, but some travel longer distances; birds banded in Canada have reached Lesser Antilles and South America. Probably migrates alone, not in flocks.

All Seasons - Common
All Seasons - Uncommon
Breeding - Common
Breeding - Uncommon
Winter - Common
Winter - Uncommon
Migration - Common
Migration - Uncommon

Songs and Calls

A sharp rasping scaip! when flushed.

Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Wilson's Snipe

Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.

Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.

Climate threats facing the Wilson's Snipe

Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.