Haven’t seen those painted-snipe for a few days. Maybe gone. Reflecting on the views offered when they were here, I am struck by the unusual butterfly-like quality of the wings. In the below, you might thing I have flipped the images, but they show the extended left wing (L) and right wing (R). Therefore the elaborate pattern of the left forewing is completely obscured when the wing is folded (right and below). Coloured arrows indicate roughly what I take to be the corresponding parts of the wing, eg the yellow arrow shows the ‘vermiculated’ parts (are they ‘secondary coverts’). One wonders what purpose is served by this pattern - perhaps the enhancing of the bluff display, perhaps something related to reproduction (although this is a female). The green arrow shows the rear-looking eye, giving 360 vision - a capacity lost with the kind of wing extension shown on the right.
