Friday, February 3, 2017

AUSTRALIAN PAINTED SNIPE

Photographed at Lakes Road, Lake George, near Bungendong, NSW, February 2017
968                    AUSTRALIAN PAINTED SNIPE                  Rostratula benghalensis

AUSTRALIA              700

Found in well-vegetated shallows and margins of wetlands, dams, sewerage ponds; wet pastures, marshy areas, irrigation systems, lignum, tee-tree scrub, open timber. 22-30 cm, female bigger. Range mostly se Aust., s of Brisbane-Adelaide; scarce, erratic over much of inland., n. Q, Nt, and coastal WA; vagrant Tas., Rare. Dispersive or irruptive in response to rainfall, possibly part migratory, moving n into Q. in summer.

The female is the more brightly coloured one on the left.