Pin-tailed Snipe in the Holy City

This morning I paid a visit to the beautiful Pin-tailed Snipe that was found in the Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem two days ago. As it happens so often nowadays, it was photographed by Shmuel Browns, posted on FB, and picked up and identified by the sharp-eyed Yonatan Gordon. This is the first record for Jerusalem, and only the 12th or so in Israel. I last saw one in October 2021.

The Pin-tailed Snipe, a young bird I think with neat pale fringes to all coverts, showed first thing this morning in one of the small wetlands in this wonderful city park right in the middle of Jerusalem. 

It was an overcast morning, so the light wasn't great for photography until I had to leave. However, the bird performed beautifully, foraging continuously, uninterested in the humans in the hide few meters away, so the experience was brilliant. 

Quick ID session - separation from Common Snipe: check the round head, 'open' face with rather unmarked pattern, slightly shorter bill, short tail, narrow mantle braces, and beutiful pattern to the lower scapulars, with even pale fringes on both webs.

This comparative photo was taken from a distance, but it shows well the structural differences between Pin-tailed Snipe (left) and Common Snipe (right). Common Snipe is also on average darker, and has a heavily marked face pattern. Remember that Common Snipe shows considerable variation in overall tones and size.

As snipes do, it was probing nonstop in the mud, and got its face and forehead coated with muck. 

Pulling a tapeworm out of the mud

Check that beautiful mantle pattern

To clean its face, the snipe often used its feet to scrape the mud off.

It was quite timid, often spooked or alarmed by a passing Moorhen or Teal. Sadly it did not spread the tail enough to see the pins.

You can't see me