Wilson’s Snipe

Description

The Wilson’s Snipe has a very long bill that is used for pulling worms, shellfish, and insects out of the muddy ground. Their chest is a mix of white and brown barring leading down to their white belly. The back has dark brown feathers with a lighter brown stripe(s) and a white edge. When approached, snipes will flush and fly in a zigzag pattern to escape predators, making them hard to harvest. When in flight, there is very noticeable barring under their wings.

Habitat and Status

The Wilson’s Snipe is a resident of the Chugach Region, occurring seasonally as a common migrant, a common breeder, and a rare winter visitor. They can be found in a wide range of habitats (marshes, bogs, swamps, shorelines) if there is a source of water making the ground soft so they can probe for food. They camouflage themselves in tall vegetation but prefer it in patches rather than covering the location. Audubon models suggest that their continental breeding range will shift far north of where it currently lies, including some loss in the Chugach Region.

Wilson’s Snipe are widely distributed in the Chugach Region.

Traditional Use

Alutiiq Elders in Kodiak report hunting snipes at low tide in the nighttime. There, they called snipes Kulic’kiiq. People approach the birds on sandbars, using the spray of pellets from a shotgun to bring down the darting snipes and harvest several animals at once. Rather than pluck snipes, people skin them and add their small bodies to soups and stews. They are also tasty roasted (Alutiiq Museum).

Harvesting small birds may seem like a lot of work for a small return, but it is a common practice. Like collecting shellfish, or fishing for herring, people take advantage of the abundance of food represented in many small packages to create nourishing meals. This is a strategy many societies use, particularly when large animals like seals or caribou are unavailable.