Gallinago stenura
Silhouette: Jamie Whitehouse · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The pin-tailed snipe or pintail snipe (Gallinago stenura) is a species of bird in the family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers. It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season in southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia. It is the most common migrant snipe in southern India, Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. It is a vagrant to north-western and northern Australia, and to Kenya in East Africa.
Its breeding habitat is damp marshes and tundra in Arctic and boreal Russia. Birds in their non-breeding range use a variety of wetlands, often with common snipe, but may be found also in drier habitats than their relative. They nest in a well-hidden location on the ground.
These birds forage in mud or soft soil, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and earthworms, but also some plant material. This 25–27 cm long bird is similar to the longer-billed and longer-tailed common snipe. Adults have short greenish-grey legs and a long straight dark bill. The body is mottled brown on top, with cream lines down their back. They are pale underneath with a streaked buff breast and white belly. They have a... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 8 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Kathmandu | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 3 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 9 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pin-tailed Snipe sighting in Udawalawe National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 132nd most-seen of the 166 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 December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pin-tailed Snipe in Udawalawe National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January and March–November, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pin-tailed Snipe sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
4th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Pin-tailed Snipe sightings, Udawalawe National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Wilpattu National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%), Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%) and Periyar National Park (India, under 5%).
Same family: Scolopacidae
The closest relatives of the Pin-tailed Snipe that you can see in Udawalawe National Park (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Common Sandpiper (about 30%), Wood Sandpiper (about 20%) and Marsh Sandpiper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pin-tailed Snipe is recorded against all the birds logged in Udawalawe National Park (17 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.
