Rostratula benghalensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The greater painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis) is a species of wader in the small painted-snipe family Rostratulidae. It widely distributed across Africa and southern Asia and is found in a variety of wetland habitats, including swamps and the edges of larger water bodies such as lakes and rivers. This species is sexually dimorphic with the female being larger and more brightly coloured than the male. The female is normally polyandrous with the males incubating the eggs and caring for the young.
The greater painted-snipe was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the rails in the genus Rallus and coined the binomial name Rallus benghalenis. Linnaeus based his account on the "Bengall water rail" that had been described and illustrated in 1738 by the English naturalist Eleazar Albin in his A Natural History of Birds. Albin had examined a drawing that had been sent to the English silk-pattern designer Joseph Dandridge from Bengal. The greater painted-snipe is now placed with the Australian painted-snipe in the genus Rostratula that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 3 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Kota | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 7 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Taichung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 10 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Painted-Snipe sighting in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 235th most-seen of the 275 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.
February and April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Painted-Snipe in Mana Pools National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May to January, the lowest months. Those are among Mana Pools National Park's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain a month against almost none in August. March has too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Greater Painted-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.
19th of 39
Of the 39 parks where we can rate Greater Painted-Snipe sightings, Mana Pools National Park ranks 19th at under 5%. The best odds are in Amboseli National Park (Kenya, about 10%), Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 10%) and Ranthambore National Park (India, about 10%).
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Greater Painted-Snipe that you can see in Mana Pools National Park (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are White-headed Lapwing (about 50%), Black-winged Stilt (about 50%) and Water Thick-knee (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Painted-Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Mana Pools National Park (14 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.
