biology

Pin-tailed snipe

Pin-tailed snipe is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pin-tailed snipe rather than just read about it. In short: The pin-tailed snipe or pintail snipe (Gallinago stenura) is a species of bird in the family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers. Distribution It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season in southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia.

Key takeaways

Pin-tailed snipe belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pin-tailed snipe to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pin-tailed snipe from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The pin-tailed snipe or pintail snipe (Gallinago stenura) is a species of bird in the family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers.

Distribution It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season in southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia. It is the most common migrant snipe in southern India, Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. It is a vagrant to north-western and northern Australia, and to Kenya in East Africa.

Habitat Its breeding habitat is damp marshes and tundra in Arctic and boreal Russia. Birds in their non-breeding range use a variety of wetlands, often with common snipe, but may be found also in drier habitats than their relative. They nest in a well-hidden location on the ground. These birds forage in mud or soft soil, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and earthworms, but also some plant material.

Description This 25–27 cm long bird is similar to the longer-billed and longer-tailed common snipe. Adults have short greenish-grey legs and a long straight dark bill. The body is mottled brown on top, with cream lines down their back. They are pale underneath with a streaked buff breast and white belly. They have a dark stripe through the eye, with light stripes above and below it. Sexes are similar, and immatures differ only in minor plumage details. The wings are less pointed than common snipe, and lack the white trailing edge of that species. The shorter tail and flatter flight path when flushed also made flight separation from Common relatively easy. Male pin-tailed snipes often display in a group, with a loud repetitive tcheka song which has a crescendo of fizzing and buzzing sounds, and also whistling noises produced in flight by the pin-like outer tail feathers which give this species its English name. The normal call is a weak squik.

Notes

References Gallinago stenura. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). Gallinago stenura: Pin-tailed Snipe. Department of the Environment, Canberra, Australia. 2016

Further reading Carey, G. and U. Olsson. (1995). Field Identification of Common, Wilson's, Pintail and Swinhoe's Snipes. Birding World 8(5): 179–190. Marchant, J., et al. Shorebirds. ISBN 0-395-60237-8 Grimmett, R., et al. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. ISBN 0-691-04910-6

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pin-tailed snipe

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pin-tailed snipe claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pin-tailed snipe before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pin-tailed snipe ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pin-tailed snipe

In research: Pin-tailed snipe appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pin-tailed snipe in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pin-tailed snipe is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1831, Birds of North Asia, Gallinago, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pin-tailed snipe outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Pin-tailed snipe” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Pin-tailed snipe in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pin-tailed snipe means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pin-tailed snipe out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pin-tailed snipe in simple terms?

The pin-tailed snipe or pintail snipe (Gallinago stenura) is a species of bird in the family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers. Distribution It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season in southern Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia.

Why does Pin-tailed snipe matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pin-tailed snipe?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pin-tailed snipe.