Magellanic Snipe

Magellanic Snipe

Gallinago magellanica

Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Montevideo

In 3 days <5%

5 Verified sightings at Montevideo
294 In all 3 parks From 2019 to 2026
June Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Magellanic Snipe

The Magellanic snipe (Gallinago magellanica) is a bird in tribe Scolopancinai and subfamily Scolopacinae of family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers and relatives. It is found in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and the Falkland Islands.

The taxonomic history of the New World snipes of genus Gallinago is complicated. What is now the Magellanic snipe has in the past been treated as a subspecies of common snipe (G. gallinago), then as conspecific with what are now the Pantanal snipe (G. paraguaiae) and the puna snipe (G. andina), and later still as conspecific with only the Pantanal snipe. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy treat all of them as separate species. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) retains the Magellanic and Pantanal snipes as subspecies of what it calls the South American snipe, with the binomial G. paraguaiae.

This article follows the IOC definition of a monotypic G. magellanica, the Magellanic snipe. The Magellanic snipe's face has distinct tan and darker brown stripes... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Flight call0:32

Chile · 2019

© Cristian Pinto · XC522023 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Winnowing0:30

Chile · 2018

© Peter Boesman · XC449940 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Call0:06

Chile · 2011

© Andrew Spencer · XC90655 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Torres del Paine National Park 🇨🇱 Chile
~10%
2 Tierra del Fuego National Park 🇦🇷 Argentina
~10%
3 Nahuel Huapi National Park 🇦🇷 Argentina
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Montevideo 🇺🇾 Uruguay
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Magellanic Snipe in Montevideo?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Magellanic Snipe sighting in Montevideo on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 172nd most-seen of the 178 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Magellanic Snipe in Montevideo?

Any time of year

In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Magellanic Snipe in Montevideo on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.

What time of day is best to see a Magellanic Snipe?

Between 2 and 5 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Magellanic Snipe sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Where else can you see a Magellanic Snipe?

Only Montevideo, in our data

Montevideo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Magellanic Snipe sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Which relatives of the Magellanic Snipe live in Montevideo?

Same family: Scolopacidae

The closest relatives of the Magellanic Snipe that you can see in Montevideo (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Greater Yellowlegs (about 20%) and Lesser Yellowlegs (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Magellanic Snipe sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Magellanic Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Montevideo (5 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.

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