Gallinago gallinago
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
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...
| # | 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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Snipe sighting in Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) on a given day, based on 128 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 53 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Snipe in Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) on a given day, against about 10% in October to May, the lowest months.
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.
12th of 39
Of the 39 parks where we can rate Common Snipe sightings, Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) ranks 12th at about 10%. The best odds are in Biebrza National Park (Poland, about 50%), Vatnajokull National Park (Iceland, about 50%) and Hortobágy National Park (Hungary, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Scolopacidae
The closest relatives of the Common Snipe that you can see in Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Ruddy Turnstone (about 30%), Whimbrel (about 30%) and Eurasian Woodcock (about 10%), 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 Pico Island Natural Park (Azores) (128 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.
