Magellanic Snipe
Gallinago magellanica
Cryptic shorebird found predominately in lowland wet grasslands and flooded fields. Note the long straight bill, white belly with variegated cryptic plumage, and prominent contrasting pale lines on the face and back. In flight, shows a white terminal tail band. Sings a repetitive “kek kek kek kek” when on the ground. Also listen for harsh and vibrating “drumming” notes given in stuttered couplets, produced with its tail feathers during flight displays. Occurs from central Chile to southern Argentina, extensively across the Patagonia region, including the Falkland Islands. Formerly known as South American Snipe.
Identification
The Magellanic snipe's face has distinct tan and darker brown stripes. Its upperparts have a complex pattern of muted whitish, buffy, rufous, and black on a brown background. Its breast has fine vermiculation and its flanks have dark and light barring. The upper surface of its tail is rufescent with irregular bars and white tips. It has a long, thick, dull pinkish bill with a black tip. Its legs are yellowish.
Taxonomy
The taxonomic history of the New World snipes of genus Gallinago is complicated. What is now the Magellanic snipe has in the past been treated as a subspecies of common snipe (G. gallinago), then as conspecific with what are now the Pantanal snipe (G. paraguaiae) and the puna snipe (G. andina), and later still as conspecific with only the Pantanal snipe. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy treat all of them as separate species. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) retains the Magellanic and Pantanal snipes as subspecies of what it calls the South American snipe, with the binomial G. paraguaiae.<p>This article follows the IOC definition of a monotypic G. magellanica, the Magellanic snipe.
- Scientific name
- Gallinago magellanica
- Authority
- (King, PP, 1828)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Scolopacidae
- Genus
- Gallinago
Range and habitat
The Magellanic snipe is found from north-central Chile and northwestern Argentina south into Tierra del Fuego and also on the Falkland Islands. It reaches Uruguay during the non-breeding season. It inhabits a variety of damp to wet landscapes including pampas, peat bogs, flooded steppe, tussock grasslands, the edges of marshes, and sometimes swampy woods.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
The Magellanic snipe is a partial migrant. The Tierra del Fuego population mostly moves north for the austral winter, as do some individuals of the mainland population. They reach northeastern Argentina and Uruguay at that time. Some birds overwinter on the Falklands but most of that population apparently migrates to the mainland.<p>The Magellanic snipe forages by probing in mud. Their diet of invertebrates is not known in detail but includes insect larvae and earthworms.<p>The Magellanic snipe's breeding season varies geographically. On the mainland it appears to span from August to November. On the Falklands it is mainly from August to October. The male performs a winnowing display during courtship, flying high in circles and then taking shallow dives to produce a distinctive sound. The female makes a nest as a shallow depression, usually in grass and close to water. The typical clutch size is two eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known.<p>The Magellanic snipe has a very wide variety of vocalizations including a chip call "kek..kek..kek..kek..kek...", a chipper call "raspy notes repeated at steady pace ...rek..kek....rek...kek....rek..kek...", a flight call "short raspy note, repeated at irregular intervals ..kek......kek...", and a flush call "KEK.kek.kek.....kek.kek...". The chip and chipper calls are typically made from the ground or near it such as from a fence post. The species' non-vocal winnowing is made by air flowing over the outer tail feathers during flight. It is described as "a series of pulses that increase in duration and amplitude over the sound, with pulses organized as multiples (typically couplets with different duration)." It lasts two to five seconds and is repeated about every 10 seconds.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Bird Calls
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