Day 45: Wilson's Snipe

This past weekend, we braved the cold and rainy/snowy weather to go looking for snipes! Sounds like a made up game, right? Well, our target was an actual bird, the Wilson's Snipe, a widespread shorebird found throughout much of North America. Just because it's widespread does not mean it's easy to find, however. The little birds are known to be elusive, hiding in marsh grass or sedges. We had a hard enough time spotting them (someone had already reported that they were at a particular lake, so we knew we had to keep looking), but luckily we found them in the end.

Adult birds are mottled brown on top and pale underneath. They also have a very long straight bill, which is the first thing I noticed. If you see a photo of a Wilson's Snipe up close, you can also tell that the eyes are set very far back on its head. This offers full vision to both sides and an overlap to the rear, allowing a bird to detect an approaching predator while its beak is buried in the mud. Wilson's Snipes look for insects and worms in soft mud, probing or picking up food by sight. The bill has sensory pits near the tip which help birds detect prey.

During courtship, male Wilson's Snipes engage in spectacular flight displays, during which birds  make a haunting sound (called winnowing) with their outspread outer tail-feathers.