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Greater Painted-snipe

Rostratula benghalensis

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernInvertebratesWetlandPlatform nestMedium · 121 g
Greater Painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis), photo 1
Photo: Dr. Raju Kasambe · CC BY 4.0
Greater Painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis), photo 2
Photo: Dr. Raju Kasambe · CC BY 4.0
Greater Painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis), photo 3
Photo: Dr. Raju Kasambe · CC BY 4.0

ID tip

The greater painted-snipe is a medium-sized shorebird with an overall length of 23–28 cm (9.1–11.0 in). The species is sexually dimorphic: females are larger, heavier, and have bolder plumage than males. The female has a black head with a buff stripe and a white eye-patch. The neck is dark rufous. The upperparts are mostly dark bronze-green finely barred with black. A white stripe curves around the shoulder mantle. The underbody is white. The male is much paler and less uniform with barring on the scapulars and wing-coverts.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Greater Painted-snipe

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is May, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Greater Painted-snipe

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 60 countries with regular records, and 5 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Taiwan India South Africa Thailand Hong Kong SAR China Philippines Singapore Kenya China Zimbabwe Namibia Botswana Tanzania Nepal Gambia Sri Lanka Malaysia Zambia Japan Senegal Uganda Madagascar Ghana Cambodia Bangladesh Israel Indonesia Egypt Mozambique Nigeria Pakistan Vietnam Eswatini Myanmar (Burma) Cameroon Laos Ethiopia South Korea Timor-Leste Burkina Faso Côte d’Ivoire Malawi Macao SAR China Angola Guinea-Bissau Rwanda Bhutan Congo - Kinshasa Benin Chad Niger Sierra Leone Mauritania Sudan United Arab Emirates Guinea Mali Togo Brunei Oman

Recorded as a rare visitor in Saudi Arabia, Equatorial Guinea, Mayotte, Qatar, Tajikistan.

About the Greater Painted-snipe

The greater painted-snipe is a species of wader in the small painted-snipe family Rostratulidae. It widely distributed across Africa and southern Asia and is found in a variety of wetland habitats, including swamps and the edges of larger water bodies such as lakes and rivers. This species is sexually dimorphic with the female being larger and more brightly coloured than the male. The female is normally polyandrous with the males incubating the eggs and caring for the young.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Australian Painted-snipe (Rostratula australis) Australian Painted-snipeRostratula australisThe head, neck and upper breast is chocolate brown (in the male, dark grey with a buff median stripe on the crown), fading to rufous in the centre of the hindneck and merging to dark, barred grey on the back.

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