Solitary Snipe

The solitary snipe is a heavy snipe, 29–31 centimetres long, with a stocky body and relatively short legs for a wader. The upperparts, head and neck are streaked and patterned with medium brown stripes and whitish feather edges forming lines down the back. The breast is ginger-brown and the belly white with brown barring on the flanks. The bill is brown and black, long, straight and fairly slender, and the legs and feet are yellowish-olive to yellowish-brown. All plumages are similar, but females average larger. (Wikipedia, general species account)

It breeds discontinuously in the mountains of eastern Asia, in eastern Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. Many birds are sedentary in the high mountains, or simply move downhill in hard weather, but others are migratory, wintering in northeast Iran, Pakistan, northern India, Bangladesh, eastern China, Korea, Japan and Sakhalin. Two quite similar subspecies are recognised. (Wikipedia, general species account)