Gallinago solitaria
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The solitary snipe (Gallinago solitaria) is a stocky wader. It is found in the Palearctic from northeast Iran to Korea and Japan. The solitary snipe is a heavy snipe 29–31 cm long with a stocky body and relatively short legs for a wader. Its upperparts, head and neck are streaked and patterned with medium brown stripes and whitish edges to the feathers forming lines down its back. The face is whitish. The breast is ginger-brown and the belly is white with brown barring on the flanks. The brown and black bill is long, straight and fairly slender. The legs and feet are yellowish-olive to yellowish-brown. All plumages are similar, but females average larger.
There are two quite similar subspecies. The breeding range of G. s. japonica, which is richer red and less white above, is unknown, but it winters in Japan. The solitary snipe makes a hoarse kensh call as it takes off, and has a far carrying chok-a-chok-a call when displaying.
The solitary snipe has a relatively slow, heavy flight. The solitary snipe breeds discontinuously in the mountains of eastern Asia, in eastern Russia, Kazakhstan,... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seoul | 🇰🇷 South Korea |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Solitary Snipe sighting in Nikko National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 97th most-seen of the 102 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December and January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Solitary Snipe in Nikko National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February to November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Solitary 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.
Only Nikko National Park, in our data
Nikko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Solitary Snipe sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Solitary Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Nikko National Park (6 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.
