Snipes were birds we told our young campers to look for on a hike. We wanted to motivate children to look closely for things in a wetland. They would be shown a photo of a snipe and off they would go! Often we discovered many other things, never a snipe.

If you truly wish to find a snipe, know where the bird is during different parts of the year. In winter, mid to southern USA at marshy wetland areas would be the place to look for the bird. Otherwise, it is in northern USA, Canada and Alaska for the summer.

They are birds you need to look closely for in grassy, muddy stubble of freshwater pond edges. They camouflage so easily into that environment. Often times after looking for birds across a pond, or in nearby trees, I look at the water’s edge. The muck and algae … the decaying leaves and dead shrubbery … are places where a Wilson’s snipe will be if in the area.

A recent outing found me looking into a muddy area and I thought I saw a snipe. Lo and behold, a few seconds more, I saw a Wilson’s snipe probing the water’s edge. It was so well camouflaged! I spent time photographing the bird while pointing it out to another person who did not see it.

An hour later I was talking with other people. We were sharing our bird sightings. I happened to mention I observed a Wilson’s snipe. The woman said her family used to call them a “mud hen” where she grew up. While doing some of my research, a Wilson’s snipe’s species name is Gallinago. In Latin “Gallina” means hen and “-ago” means resembling. So this bird hanging around in the mud resembling a hen would prompt others to refer to it as a mud hen. Okay, makes sense!

Some day I hope to see the bird flying. Again though my research, I learned the bird’s “aerial winnowing display” has its outer tail feathers producing a hollow whistle sound. Hmm… in time maybe I can witness that. In the meantime, it is nice to see this bird here in AZ in the wintertime.