“Get out there and find this wetland jewel. You never know where it might turn up.”
THERE WERE NO Australian painted-snipe the morning I searched the drainage ditches near Brisbane Airport in November 2023. Although one had been photographed there days earlier, the wily wader eluded me. I’m not the only one who hasn’t seen this endangered shorebird; according to BirdLife Australia, the painted-snipe is one of the 10 most difficult-to-find bird species in Australia. That not only means it’s difficult for birdwatchers to find but, more importantly, it’s also a challenge for researchers.
For most of the 20th century – up until the 1990s, when DNA testing confirmed the Australian painted-snipe has been isolated on mainland Australia for millions of years – the bird was considered a subspecies of the greater painted-snipe () of Africa and Asia. Although greater painted-snipe populations have declined markedly, it remains a widespread wetland species. In parts of Asia, for example, it’s reliably found in traditional rice paddy landscapes, where it nests in fallow fields.
