Madagascar Snipe (Gallinago macrodactyla)
About the Madagascar Snipe
The Madagascar snipe (Gallinago macrodactyla) is a small stocky wader. It breeds only in the humid eastern half of Madagascar, from sea-level up to 2,700 m, being more common above 700 m. It is non-migratory. This is a large and heavy snipe, between 29 and 32 cm long with a stocky body and relatively short legs. Its upperparts, head and neck are streaked and patterned with bold, dark brown stripes and gold edges to the feathers forming lines down its back. The belly is white, with some brown barring on the flanks but never on the belly. The blackish bill is very long, straight and fairly robust. The legs and feet are yellowish-olive to greenish-grey. The sexes are similar, and immature differ only in showing buff fringes on the wing coverts.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 15 recordings for this species: 11 CC BY-NC-SA · 4 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Madagascar in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Common SnipeGallinago gallinagorecording
- Great SnipeGallinago mediarecording
- Imperial SnipeGallinago imperialisrecording
- Noble SnipeGallinago nobilisrecording
- Pin-tailed SnipeGallinago stenurarecording
- Wilson's SnipeGallinago delicatarecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.