General

Pin-tailed Snipe: Large, chunky, and cryptically colored shorebird. Upperparts complexly mottled with tan, brown, and black. Tail rufous. Bill very long. Sexes similar. Juvenile very similar to adult, but pale fringes on feathers are narrower.

Range and Habitat

Pin-tailed Snipe: This species breeds across northern Russia and winters in southern Asia, ranging from Pakistan south to Indonesia. It is a rare vagrant to North America, and has twice been found on Attu in the western Aleutian Islands. Favors marshy bogs and wet grasslands, or on muddy shorelines.

Breeding and Nesting

Pin-tailed Snipe: Four green yellow eggs with brown splotches are laid in a shallow depression on the ground well concealed by vegetation. Eggs incubated 20 days, presumably by female alone. Chicks independent in two months.

Foraging and Feeding

Pin-tailed Snipe: Probes in soft mud or ground with very long bill in wet meadows and shorelines. Eats mollusks, earthworms, and insect larvae.

Vocalization

Pin-tailed Snipe: Call is a short high-pitched "scaap."

Similar Species

Pin-tailed Snipe: Rare vagrant in western Alaska. Common and Wilson's snipes have longer tails that can be seen on perched birds.