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Pintail Snipe

© Harshith JV

 

Most snipes are expert in camouflage. Have seen this bird in many places where they are notoriously difficult to spot unless you are a regular birder to such landscapes or you flush them out. But in Pallikaranai, things are different. Here these snipes have less chance of hiding. Yet they manage to hide behind grass blades sometimes.

 

Even in summer month when we visited, these wetlands are having murky waters that is covered in green grasses across the large swathes of what is collectively known as Pallikarnai Marshland. Its in southern parts on Chennai city, but actually in Kanchipuram district. Birding in this part of Chennai is quite a different experience and we had good time birding there.

 

A big thanks to Rama Neelamegam for birding assistance there.

 

Note: Pintail snipes and Swinhoe's snipe have notoriously similar and over-lapping morphological features and so are difficult to tell apart. Some refer to these two as 'Swine-tail' instead. Therefore I am using 'cf.' notation while mentioning scientific names to say that ID is not fully confirmed.

 

Common names: Pintail Snipe, Pin-tailed Snipe, Asiatic Snipe

Scientific name: Gallinago cf. stenura

Place: Pallikaranai, Tamil Nadu, India

Date: April 15, 2019

 

File name: IMG_2230.enhanced.upload.JPG

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Uploaded on July 2, 2019
Taken on April 15, 2019