FIRST RECORD OF SOLITARY SNIPE FOR NORTH AMERICA ON SAINT PAUL ISLAND, ALASKA 
Figure 4. Latham's (Japanese) Snipe — here photographed in Mew South Wales, Australia (date unknown)— is a species anticipated to 
turn up in Alaska, where there are records of Pin-tailed Snipe, another Asian species. These species share general attributes with the 
more familiar Common and Wilson's Snipe: they are intermediate in size between the tiny Jack Snipe (also recorded in North America) 
and the larger Asian snipe species such as Solitary and Great, are paler overall in plumage, with softer browns and more buff or huffy 
gold in the plumage, and have less striking facial patterns than the smaller Jack Snipe and larger Solitary, Great, and Wood Snipe. 
Photograph by Peter Merritt. 
It is important to note Liere that each of the 
three Saint Paul Tour guides, and the members 
of the tour group, independently arrived at the 
same identification based upon the material 
available to us just after the observation: A 
Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and 
North-East Asia (Shimba 2008), the Collins 
Guide to the Birds of Europe (Mullarney et al. 
1999), Photographic Guide to Shorebirds of the 
World (Rosair and Cottridge 1995), as well as 
various websites (see in par- 
ticular <http://homepagel. 
nifty.com/gallinago/gallinago. 
html>). Photographs were 
submitted to experts in the 
identification of Asian shore- 
birds, who confirmed the 
identification as Solitary 
Snipe. The record has been 
submitted to the Alaska Bird 
Records Committee. 
Range and extra- 
limital reports of 
Solitary Snipe 
Solitary Snipe breeds over a 
large discontinuous region of 
central Asia, from Kazakhstan, 
Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia east 
through India and China and 
parts of Russia (del Hoyo et al. 
1993; Figure 5). It is infre- 
quently encountered in its re- 
mote breeding range and so is 
somewhat enigmatic and poorly known. It 
breeds “almost exclusively... at high altitudes, 
1500-5000 m, well above treeline; in river val- 
leys, grassy swamps, and mountain bogs, often 
near running water. Outside the breeding sea- 
son [it occurs] at lower [elevations] in similar 
habitat, at unfrozen water bodies in foothills 
and adjoining plains, along mountain streams, 
in paddyfields and marshes, and along the 
coast” (del Hoyo et al. 1993). Some individuals 
appear to be essentially sedentary, driven 
downslope only by inclement weather; others 
migrate to winter south of the breeding range 
(Rosair and Cottridge 1995). Wintering birds 
occur in Japan, the Koreas, northern India, 
Pakistan, Iran, and eastern China, with va- 
grants known from Hong Kong (Rosair and 
Cottridge 1995), Chilka Lake in the state of 
Orissa, India (Hayman et al. 1986), and 
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 1979). The 
Arabian individual was identified in-hand on 
28 October 1975 and indicates the species’ abil- 
ity to make long-distance extralimital move- 
ments Oennings 1979). Its small breeding pop- 
ulation on the southern Kamchatka Peninsula 
(Gerasimov et al. 1999) almost certainly ac- 
counts for some of the Japanese wintering pop- 
ulation (Shimba 2008) and for records from the 
Commander Islands, where it is a rare straggler 
Qohnson 1961). Although the Saint Paul Island 
record is unprecedented for North America, a 
migratory population on the western edge of 
the Bering Sea that likely undertakes over-wa- 
ter flights to Japan and that has reached Russ- 
ian islands in the Bering Sea means that Soli- 
tary Snipe is an expected addition to the North 
American avifauna. 
Acknowledgments 
The authors thank Wings, Inc. and Saint Paul 
Island Tour of the Tanadusix Corporation for 
making possible regular and lengthy visits to 
the island of Saint Paul. Dave Porter provided 
invaluable help in relocating the bird and ob- 
taining photographs. We also thank Paul 
Lehman, Jon Dunn, Michael O’Brien, Chris Be- 
nesh, Martin Reid, and George Armistead for 
their comments on the photographs, Peter 
Merritt and Robert Newlin for permission to re- 
produce their photographs in this article, and 
Klaus Riede for permission to reproduce the 
map. Reviews by Rich Hoyer, Paul Lehman, P. 
A. Buckley, and Rick Wright greatly improved 
the scope and content of this article. 
Literature cited 
Bhushan, B., G. Fry, A. Hibi, T. Mundkur, D. 
M. Prawiradilaga, K, Sonobe, and S. Usui. 
1993. A Field Guide to the Waterbirds of Asia. 
Wild Bird Society of Japan, Tokyo, Japan. 
Del Hoyo, J., A. Elliot, and J. Sargatal, eds. 
feeding, wintering 
® ® del 1091-2002 
breeding 
M0>'0 t 
,, J mmbbwcofn 
all year rourxl Copynaht bin • vowr oioro eo 
Gaiimago solitana 
Figure 5. This map, furnished courtesy of the Globai Register of Migratory Species 
(see <www.groms.de>) of the Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum 
Alexander in Bonn, Germany, depicts the range of Solitary Snipe: areas of appar- 
ent permanent residence (green), a small area of breeding-only range in the Russ- 
ian Far East (yellow), and nonbreeding range (blue; often lower-elevation areas 
adjacent areas of permanent or mostly permanent residence). Map courtesy of and 
© the Global Register of Migratory Species, reproduced with permission. 
180 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
