Gallinago gallinago
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The common snipe (Gallinago gallinago, formerly also known as Gallinago cælestis) is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World, where it breeds in marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows. It is usually shy and well-camouflaged, foraging in soft mud mainly for insects and earthworms but also some plant material. During courtship, males perform a "winnowing" display; flying high in circles and then taking shallow dives to produce a "drumming" sound by vibrating the tail feathers.
The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution limit extends from Iceland over the north of the British Isles and northern Fennoscandia, where it occurs at around 70°N, as well as through European Russia and Siberia. Here it is mostly on the northern edge of the Taiga zone at 71°N, but reaches 74°N on the east coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. In the east it extends to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Bering Island and the Kuril Islands, The southern boundary of the distribution area in Europe runs through northern Portugal, central France, northern Italy, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, with populations in the west being only very... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 4 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 6 | Riyadh | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 7 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 8 | Chattogram | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 9 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Rabat | 🇲🇦 Morocco |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Common Snipe sighting in Istanbul on a given day, based on 129 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 107th most-seen of the 233 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Snipe in Istanbul on a given day, against under 5% in February–July and September–December, the lowest months. That is one of Istanbul's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain against 90 mm in December.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Snipe sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
36th of 103
Of the 103 cities where we can rate Common Snipe sightings, Istanbul ranks 36th at under 5%. The best odds are in Quanzhou (China, about 40%), Naha (Japan, about 40%) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Istanbul (129 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
