Have you been the recipient of a snipe hunt? A practical joke in existence since the mid 1800’s where naivety is not your friend. The unsuspecting individual is sent out…at night no less…armed with a bag or pillowcase to catch an imaginary creature called a snipe. Left alone in the night, the target of the practical joke realizes they have been duped. Only its not imaginary!

It seems many new to birding are familiar with the case of the “imaginary” snipe. When we introduced some new birders to an area where the Wilson’s snipe would likely be found, they exclaimed that they didn’t think there was such a thing as a snipe. Well there is! And a beautiful, elusive bird it is.

The Wilson’s snipe is a stocky shorebird with a very long straight bill, about the size of a robin. It is very cryptically patterned with brown and buffy colored stripes along the back and a brown streaked and spotted chest. It is perfectly camouflaged in its habitat of muddy pond edges or damp fields with thick vegetation. Unless they move or you get right up close to them as they flush up and away, you’d likely never see them and even when they do, it is quick and then they seem to disappear into the grass.

They forage by probing their long bills into the soft ground searching for earthworms and other invertebrates moving up and down slowly like a sewing machine. The bill is flexible allowing them to slurp up small prey without removing their bill from the soil. The location of the eyes are set far back so it can see well behind them when their head is down to avoid potential predators.

Wilson’s snipe build their nest on the ground with the female only tending the nest and nestlings. A cool fact however is that once fledged, the parents split up, the female departs with the youngest while the male departs with the oldest with no further contact.

So, don’t let anyone fool you about “snipe hunting”. You really can go out and find them!