Madagascar Snipe

This is a large and heavy snipe 29-32 cm long with a stocky body and relatively short legs for a wader. Its upperparts, head and neck are streaked and patterned with bold dark brown stripes and gold edges to the feathers forming lines down its back. The belly is white, with some brown barring on the flanks but never on the belly. The blackish bill is very long, straight and fairly robust. The legs and feet are yellowish-olive to greenish-grey. The sexes are similar, and immature differ only in showing buff fringes on the wing coverts.

The Madagascar Snipe is classified as Near Threatened (NT), is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future.

The Madagascar Snipe, Gallinago macrodactyla, is a small stocky wader. It breeds only in the humid eastern half of Madagascar, from sea-level up to 2,700 m, being more common above 700 m. It is non-migratory. More

Madagascar Snipe, Gallinago macrodactyla Great Snipe, Gallinago media Common Snipe, Gallinago gallinago Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago (gallinago) delicata South American Snipe, Gallinago paraguaiae Noble Snipe, Gallinago nobilis Giant Snipe, Gallinago undulata Fuegian Snipe, Gallinago stricklandii Andean Snipe, Gallinago jamesoni Imperial Snipe, Gallinago imperialis Fossil bones of some undescribed Gallinago species most similar to the Great Snipe have been recovered in Late Miocene or Early Pliocene deposits (c. More