John Holmes

Here are two shots of Swinhoe's/Pintail Snipe taken in Hong Kong at the end of September.

Geoff C. mentioned "the rich buff lower edges to the lower scapulars.." on Common Snipe.

You can see on the bird in these two photos, the buffy edge to the scapulars is narrower and goes all the way around- not just the lower edge-  so that "Swintail" has much less of a lined appearance on the back than does Common.

The plates and description in Mark Brazil's "Birds of East Asia" are very useful to separate the asian snipe species.

[ Last edited by John Holmes at 17/11/2013 18:43 ]