Hudson's Snipe
| Hudson's Snipe | ||||||||
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Hudson's Snipe |
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| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||
| Limosa haemastica | ||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Hudson's snipe ( Limosa haemastica ), also known as the American godwit , is a large wader from the genus of the common woodcock ( Limosa ).
description
The Hudson's snipe reaches a length of 37 to 42 cm. The pink beak is 8 cm long and pointed upwards. The weight is between 195 and 358 grams. The long legs are black in color. The chest and sides are tightly striped, a fine wave pattern stretches across the stomach. The rump is white. The black tail has white banding. The top is mottled brown. The summer plumage of the males has a maroon color from the chest to the belly. The females are darker in color. In winter, the plumage on the back of both sexes is gray and the chest is tinted lighter. Black underwing coverts can be seen in flight. His call sounds like a high-spirited tawit! on.
distribution and habitat
Their breeding area is in southern Alaska (e.g. Cook Inlet ), but probably also in western Alaska (such as Kotzebue and Norton Bay ) and Mackenzie , north-western British Columbia to Hudson Bay . In spring she migrates to the Great Plains . Their wintering sites are in Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands , with thousands of birds gathering in James Bay in the fall and then flying non-stop to South America . Their habitat are beaches and prairie ponds. They spend the summer in the arctic tundra .
Way of life
During the winter months, Hudson's snipes are sociable, but they only form small schools of up to 30 individuals. On the other hand, they are solitary ground-breeders, in which the males fight for the individual territories. The nest is well camouflaged in a swampy area. The female usually lays four eggs. Both parents take care of the young who flee from the nest and look for food on their own soon after they are born. After a month they are fully fledged. These snipes find their food, which consists of insects and crustaceans, in shallow water.
Hudson's snipe and human
In the 19th century the Hudson's snipe was still a very common bird. However, the bird hunters' fury caused the populations to shrink so much that they disappeared from a large area of their range in the 1920s. Today the stock is stable at around 50,000 copies. Nevertheless, the drainage of wetlands, human disturbance and environmental pollution could lead to a renewed decline of this species, as around 80 percent of the world population is restricted to a few breeding areas.
supporting documents
literature
- Richard Sale: A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife. Christopher Helm, London 2006, ISBN 0-7136-7039-8
Web links
- Barge hudsonienne (French)
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Limosa haemastica in the Internet Bird Collection
- Limosa haemastica inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
Single receipts
- ↑ Sale, p. 210