Hi All,
Pin-tailed and Swinhoe's Snipe must be two of the most challenging bird
species to separate and identify with certainty under field conditions in
Australia. Although there is quite a list of indicative characters the only
field character that I'd currently consider definitive is the tail
structure..in particular the width and length of the outermost 5-8 tail
feathers. The difficulty in the field is that the important bits of the tail
are invariably obscured by the broader more central tail feathers -
certainty of the identification requires a patient wait. And then, only the
most cooperative of snipe reveal their tails when preening or stretching.
Over the last couple of days Adrian Boyle has photographed just such a
Pin-tailed Snipe in Broome.
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/pin_tailed_snipe
And in October and November 2009 I photographed two different Swinhoe's
Snipe behaving in the same manner.
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/swinhoes_snipe
Although snipe on Christmas Island and Cocos Islands are invariably
identified as Pin-tailed Snipe on range and those in Darwin are identified
as Swinhoe's on range you don't hear of many that are identified with
certainty in the field on plumage characters. This is especially so in NW
Western Australia where both species appear to occur annually. I'll stick my
neck out here and state that Adrian's photographs may well be the first time
that a Pin-tailed Snipe has been unquestionably documented in the field in
Australia.
There is an ulterior motive for this statement. Jeff Davies, Danny Rogers,
Adrian and myself would love to see other photos of snipe taken in Australia
that prove otherwise. This is because we are keen to further resolve the
field characters of these two species. We are especially keen to get hold of
any images of individuals where the tail structure is apparent so that any
other characters can be 'proofed' against this feature. Images of any snipe
thought to be either Pin-tailed or Swinhoe's regardless of quality would
also be appreciated. Any images supplied won't be forwarded onto others and
copy write will of course be respected.
I look forward to being swamped with images disproving the above statement
and showing that numerous Pin-tailed (and Swinhoe's) Snipe have been
definitively documented in Australia.
Cheers,
Rohan
Rohan Clarke
www.wildlifeimages.com.au
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