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Snipe is the name given to 19 species of small to medium-sized shorebirds (254-406 mm) of the sandpiper family.
Snipe is the name given to 19 species of small to medium-sized shorebirds (254-406 mm) of the sandpiper family. Like woodcocks, snipes have long bills with flexible tips and eyes set well back on the skull, allowing almost all-round vision.
Snipes are renowned for courtship and territorial displays known as winnowing - birds circle over their territory and dive with a loud "bleating" noise caused by air rushing past the extended outer tail feathers. Hence, they are sometimes called "goat of the bogs."
The Holarctic common or Wilson's snipe (Gallinago gallinago) nests from Alaska to California, east across Canada and the northern US to Newfoundland, and winters south to Venezuela and Colombia.
