Great Snipe

Gallinago media (Latham, 1787)

Great Snipe, Gallinago media, breeds in subarctic to temperate meadows across the north-west Palearctic, from western and northern Scandinavia and eastern Poland through western Russia to the Yenisei River in western Siberia. It spends the non-breeding season in wet grassland across tropical and subtropical sub-Saharan Africa. A stocky wader in the sandpiper family, it is a migratory bird with a short bill and a broad-winged build. Its breeding grounds are marshes and wet meadows with short vegetation.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

Palearctic: subarctic to temperate meadows of nw Palearctic: w, n Scandinavia and e Poland through w Russia to Yenisei River (w Siberia)

Nonbreeding range

Africa: wet grassland of tropical and subtropical Sub-Saharan Africa