Two Wings and a Tail

BirdNote ^®
Two Wings and a Tail
Written by Dennis Paulson

This is BirdNote!

[The sounds of an active marsh]

In spring, around low, marshy spots in open country, listen for this sound coming from somewhere up in the sky. 

[Winnowing of a Wilson’s Snipe]

It is the winnowing sound of the Wilson’s Snipe. Look up, and you may see the bird itself. The snipe, a brown, heavily striped sandpiper with a very long bill, lives in marshes and muddy areas, where it probes for worms and other squirmy delights. But when spring comes, it takes to the air.

[Winnowing of a Wilson’s Snipe]

The male snipe circles high above in a series of roller-coaster arcs, each descent marked by this loud and distinctive sound. His rapidly beating wings force air through his widespread outer tail-feathers, which are narrow and stiff. The resulting tremolo seems more than could come from a couple of tail-feathers. Each burst of sound has a Doppler effect, like the whistle of a passing train.

[Train whistle]
[Winnowing of a Wilson’s Snipe]

Snipes also sing from the ground, in this case a song like that of many other birds in spring. 

[Vocal song of a Wilson’s Snipe]

But it is the winnowing that captures our attention: a twitterpated sandpiper making music with two wings and a tail.

[Winnowing of a Wilson’s Snipe]

For BirdNote, I'm Mary McCann.

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Sounds of the Wilson’s Snipe provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Winnowing and calls recorded by Hershberger/Peyton/Little and winnowing alone recorded by G.A. Keller.
Quiet Planet QP09 1048 recorded by Gordon Hempton.
Train doppler effect recorded by JeffWojo on Freesound.org.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org     May 2018 /2021   Narrator: Mary McCann

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