Gallinago gallinago
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Snipe sighting in Naha on a given day, based on 126 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 81 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to February
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Common Snipe in Naha on a given day, against about 10% in May and August, the lowest months. Those are among Naha's driest months, with about 65 mm of rain a month against 310 mm in June.
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.
Among the best
Of the 103 cities where we can rate Common Snipe sightings, Naha ranks 2nd at about 40%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Quanzhou (China, about 40%).
Same family: Scolopacidae
The closest relatives of the Common Snipe that you can see in Naha (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Common Greenshank (about 60%), Common Sandpiper (about 60%) and Common Redshank (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Naha (126 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.
