Gallinago magellanica
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
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 →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Torres del Paine National Park | 🇨🇱 Chile | |
| 2 | Tierra del Fuego National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Nahuel Huapi National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montevideo | 🇺🇾 Uruguay |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Magellanic Snipe sighting in Nahuel Huapi National Park on a given day, based on 40 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 70th most-seen of the 111 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–February, April and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Magellanic Snipe in Nahuel Huapi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March, May–September and November–December, 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.
3rd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Magellanic Snipe sightings, Nahuel Huapi National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in 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 Nahuel Huapi National Park (40 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.
