Gallinago gallinago

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	AVES	CHARADRIIFORMES	SCOLOPACIDAE

Scientific Name:

Gallinago gallinago

Species Authority:

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Common Name/s:

English	–	Common Snipe, Snipe
French	–	Bécassine des marais

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Least Concern ver 3.1

Year Assessed:

2009

Assessor/s:

BirdLife International

Reviewer/s:

Bird, J., Butchart, S.

Contributor/s:

Ferrand, Y.

Justification:
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

History:

2008	–	Least Concern
2005	–	Least Concern
2004	–	Not Recognized
2000	–	Not Recognized

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	This species has a large global population estimated to be >5,400,000-7,500,000 individuals¹.
Countries:	Native: Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; Antigua and Barbuda; Armenia; Aruba; Austria; Azerbaijan; Bahamas; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Barbados; Belarus; Belgium; Belize; Bermuda; Bhutan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Brunei Darussalam; Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cambodia; Cameroon; Canada; Cayman Islands; Central African Republic; Chad; China; Colombia; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Costa Rica; Côte d'Ivoire; Croatia; Cuba; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Djibouti; Dominica; Dominican Republic; Egypt; El Salvador; Eritrea; Estonia; Ethiopia; Faroe Islands; Finland; France; Gabon; Gambia; Georgia; Germany; Ghana; Greece; Greenland; Grenada; Guadeloupe; Guam; Guatemala; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Guyana; Haiti; Honduras; Hong Kong; Hungary; Iceland; India; Indonesia; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Latvia; Lebanon; Liberia; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Malaysia; Maldives; Mali; Malta; Martinique; Mauritania; Mexico; Moldova; Mongolia; Montenegro; Montserrat; Morocco; Myanmar; Nepal; Netherlands; Netherlands Antilles; Nicaragua; Niger; Nigeria; Northern Mariana Islands; Norway; Oman; Pakistan; Palestinian Territory, Occupied; Panama; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Puerto Rico; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation; Russian Federation; Russian Federation; Rwanda; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Martin (French part); Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Serbia; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Slovakia; Slovenia; Somalia; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Suriname; Sweden; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Tajikistan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Togo; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Turks and Caicos Islands; Uganda; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; United States; Uzbekistan; Venezuela; Viet Nam; Virgin Islands, British; Virgin Islands, U.S.; Yemen Vagrant: Benin; Cape Verde; Ecuador; Equatorial Guinea; Gibraltar; Malawi; Seychelles; Svalbard and Jan Mayen; United States Minor Outlying Islands; Zambia
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population [top]

Population:	Total regarded as a minimum by Wetlands International (2006).

Population:

Total regarded as a minimum by Wetlands International (2006).

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	Behaviour This species is fully migratory although some populations only migrate short distances². It breeds from April to August³ in solitary territorial pairs and after breeding it moves to moulting areas before migrating south to the wintering grounds². It is not a truly gregarious species⁶ although it usually forages in small groups², occasionally also gathering in larger flocks of several hundred during migration or in the winter³. The species is also generally crepuscular in its activities². Habitat Breeding The species breeds on fresh or brackish marshland with rich or tussocky vegetation^{2, 3} including grassy or marshy edges of lakes and rivers², marshy bogs and moors⁴, marshy tundra, wet meadows², peat bogs, fens, swamps (North America)⁴ and swampy forest⁵. Non-breeding In its wintering range the species frequents similar habitats to those it breeds in^{2, 3} including permanent and temporary swamps, the marshy edges of lakes and dams, flooded sedge and grassland⁷, also utilising more artificial habitats such as damp farmland³ (e.g. cattle pastures, sugar-cane fields⁴, rice-fields²), sewage farms² and drainage ditches⁴. The species may also move to more coastal areas such as the upper reaches of estuaries and coastal meadows² during periods of frost⁶. Diet Its diet consists of adult and larval insects, earthworms, small crustaceans² (e.g. isopods and amphipods)⁴, small gastropods, spiders², small amphibians (Africa)⁷ and occasionally plant fibres, seeds and grit⁴. Breeding site The nest is a shallow scrape⁶ positioned on dry ground in marshes, fens, swamps and bogs⁴ (e.g. on a mound or sedge tuft)⁵ in the cover of grass, rushes, sedge or sphagnum moss². The species nests in solitary territorial pairs at densities of between 10 and 38 or up to 110 pairs per kilometre². Management information Studies in Danish coastal wetlands found that the spatial restriction of shore-based shooting was more successful at maintaining waterfowl population sizes than was the temporal restriction of shooting, and therefore that wildfowl reserves should incorporate shooting-free refuges that include adjacent marshland in order to ensure high waterbird species diversity¹³. The species is known to show increased hatching successes when ground predators have been excluded by erecting protective fences around nesting areas¹⁵. At a reserve in the UK management strategies such as reseeding grasslands to be dominated by rushes Juncus spp. and purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea, mechanical cutting and grazing, digging small scrapes and maintaining high water-levels succeeded in attracting an increased number of breeding pairs to the area¹⁶. The annual success of reproduction is estimated every year by wing surveys in Denmark since the 1970s and in France since the mid-1990s¹⁸. Hunting bags are estimated every year in Denmark¹⁸.
Systems:	Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine

Habitat and Ecology:

Behaviour This species is fully migratory although some populations only migrate short distances². It breeds from April to August³ in solitary territorial pairs and after breeding it moves to moulting areas before migrating south to the wintering grounds². It is not a truly gregarious species⁶ although it usually forages in small groups², occasionally also gathering in larger flocks of several hundred during migration or in the winter³. The species is also generally crepuscular in its activities². Habitat Breeding The species breeds on fresh or brackish marshland with rich or tussocky vegetation^{2, 3} including grassy or marshy edges of lakes and rivers², marshy bogs and moors⁴, marshy tundra, wet meadows², peat bogs, fens, swamps (North America)⁴ and swampy forest⁵. Non-breeding In its wintering range the species frequents similar habitats to those it breeds in^{2, 3} including permanent and temporary swamps, the marshy edges of lakes and dams, flooded sedge and grassland⁷, also utilising more artificial habitats such as damp farmland³ (e.g. cattle pastures, sugar-cane fields⁴, rice-fields²), sewage farms² and drainage ditches⁴. The species may also move to more coastal areas such as the upper reaches of estuaries and coastal meadows² during periods of frost⁶. Diet Its diet consists of adult and larval insects, earthworms, small crustaceans² (e.g. isopods and amphipods)⁴, small gastropods, spiders², small amphibians (Africa)⁷ and occasionally plant fibres, seeds and grit⁴. Breeding site The nest is a shallow scrape⁶ positioned on dry ground in marshes, fens, swamps and bogs⁴ (e.g. on a mound or sedge tuft)⁵ in the cover of grass, rushes, sedge or sphagnum moss². The species nests in solitary territorial pairs at densities of between 10 and 38 or up to 110 pairs per kilometre². Management information Studies in Danish coastal wetlands found that the spatial restriction of shore-based shooting was more successful at maintaining waterfowl population sizes than was the temporal restriction of shooting, and therefore that wildfowl reserves should incorporate shooting-free refuges that include adjacent marshland in order to ensure high waterbird species diversity¹³. The species is known to show increased hatching successes when ground predators have been excluded by erecting protective fences around nesting areas¹⁵. At a reserve in the UK management strategies such as reseeding grasslands to be dominated by rushes Juncus spp. and purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea, mechanical cutting and grazing, digging small scrapes and maintaining high water-levels succeeded in attracting an increased number of breeding pairs to the area¹⁶. The annual success of reproduction is estimated every year by wing surveys in Denmark since the 1970s and in France since the mid-1990s¹⁸. Hunting bags are estimated every year in Denmark¹⁸.

Systems:

Terrestrial; Freshwater; Marine

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	The species is threatened by habitat changes such as wetland drainage² and grassland improvement² (e.g. through drainage, inorganic fertilising and reseeding)¹⁴. Important migratory stop-over habitats in the Kaliningrad region of Russia are also threatened by petroleum pollution, wetland and flood-plain drainage (for irrigation and water management), peat-extraction, reedbed mowing and burning, and abandonment and changing land management practices leading to scrub and reed overgrowth⁷. The species suffers from lead poisoning as a result of ingesting lead shot deposited on wetlands^{10, 11, 12}, suffers nest predation by introduced mammals (e.g. European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus) on islands¹⁵, and is susceptible to avian influenza so may be threatened by future outbreaks of the viurs⁸. Utilisation The species is hunted for sport (e.g. in Denmark)⁹.

Major Threat(s):

The species is threatened by habitat changes such as wetland drainage² and grassland improvement² (e.g. through drainage, inorganic fertilising and reseeding)¹⁴. Important migratory stop-over habitats in the Kaliningrad region of Russia are also threatened by petroleum pollution, wetland and flood-plain drainage (for irrigation and water management), peat-extraction, reedbed mowing and burning, and abandonment and changing land management practices leading to scrub and reed overgrowth⁷. The species suffers from lead poisoning as a result of ingesting lead shot deposited on wetlands^{10, 11, 12}, suffers nest predation by introduced mammals (e.g. European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus) on islands¹⁵, and is susceptible to avian influenza so may be threatened by future outbreaks of the viurs⁸. Utilisation The species is hunted for sport (e.g. in Denmark)⁹.

Citation:	BirdLife International 2009. Gallinago gallinago. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 07 February 2012.
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