General

Jack Snipe: Medium-sized, stocky sandpiper with mottled brown upperparts and paler underparts. Eyestripe is dark. Yellow stripes on back are visible in flight. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Jack Snipe: Prefers marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows in northern Europe and northern Russia. Winters in Great Britain, Atlantic and coastal Europe, Africa, and India. Breeds in northern taiga in wet, open areas with birch and willow forests. Winters on shallow, wet, and muddy areas. Is an accidental spring migrant in the Pribilofs and in the late fall in California and Labrador.

Breeding and Nesting

Jack Snipe: Four light gray or olive brown eggs with red brown spots are laid in well-hidden ground nest. Eggs are incubated for 24 days by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Jack Snipe: Eats earthworms, insects, small mollusks, grass, and seeds; forages in soft mud, probing with its bill or picking up food by sight.

Vocalization

Jack Snipe: Male performs an aerial display during courtship, and has a song like a galloping horse.

Similar Species

Jack Snipe: Common Snipe is larger and has a longer bill.