Wildlife: Avian LingoCan you name groups of Birds?!!, 1 by kennedyh

kennedyh wrote:
The Snipe Gallinago gallinago is another wading bird frequenting marshes. They have been a popular game bird for many years. They are fascinating birds and in the breeding season, they perform a spectacular display flight, called drumming. They climb to a fair height and then dive steeply with their tail fully spread and special stiff outer tail feathers vibrate with a loud drumming sound. I witnessed this once in Cambridgeshire in England. When I lived in Suffolk, just before moving to Australia, I trained as a bird-bander and we were mist-netting in the marshes around Oulton Broad. We were mainly trying to catch reed warblers and bearded tits, but the end of the net stuck out beyond the patch of reeds and this snipe flew round the reeds and into the end of the net. We have a species of snipe in Australia in the summer, but they don't breed here. They have become quite rare and I have not seen one since I left Tasmania in 1985.