Birds of Singapore
by the Bird Society of Singapore
Gallinago gallinago
Family: Sandpipers and Allies · Status: Uncommon migrant · Size: 25–27 cm · Conservation: Least Concern
Breeds across the Palearctic from central Europe to east Siberia, wintering to western Europe, tropical Africa, the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia east to southern China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Borneo.
The easiest to identify of the three snipes that winter locally; several distinctive features can be used to reliably tell this species apart from both Pin-tailed and Swinhoe's. Structurally, Common is distinctly sleeker, smaller-headed, and longer-billed than both those species. It is also obviously more "contrasty", especially evident on the facial feathers (loral line especially darker and more prominent in Common). Most easily distinguished in flight, where broad white trailing-edge to secondaries and uneven markings on underwing (unlike Pin-tailed and Swinhoe's, which have evenly-barred underwing patterns) separate this species.
Damp grasslands with areas of tall grass and muddy freshwater marshes. Tends to prefer wetter habitats than Pin-tailed and Swinhoe's Snipes, though all three species can occur in the same places.
When flushed, usually flies in a zigzag path, unlike the other snipe species in Singapore.