Gallinago magellanica
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Falkland Islands | 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands | |
| 2 | Torres del Paine National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 3 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Magellanic Snipe sighting in Falkland Islands on a given day, based on 352 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 37th most-seen of the 79 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December and January
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Magellanic Snipe in Falkland Islands on a given day, against about 10% in February–April and July–August, the lowest months.
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.
Yes
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Magellanic Snipe sightings, Falkland Islands has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Torres del Paine National Park (Chile, about 10%) and Tierra del Fuego National Park (Argentina, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Magellanic Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Falkland Islands (352 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
