Instead you’re likely to trudge past one without the faintest of hints to its whereabouts. Snipe are notoriously difficult to flush into flight. Its breeding grounds are located in Iceland, the Faroes, northern Europe and Russia. *Many snipe hunters don’t use hunting dogs. Sandpipers include many species called sandpipers, as well as those called by names such as curlew and snipe. Snipe are medium sized, skulking wading birds with short legs and long straight bills. Eyestripe is dark. Most species have a narrow bill, but otherwise the form and length are quite variable. You’ll likely hear one before you spot it, but when you learn to pick out the noises snipe make, you can usually track them down. They have long bodies and legs, and narrow wings. Weak flight with rapid, shallow wing beats. The term nocturnal flight call or NFC is, for the purposes of this guide, mainly used for calls given during migration flights. Snipe rarely fly in flocks. Nests of the Common Snipe are hidden on the ground under low vegetation. Snipe Flies. Populations in Europe migrate in winter months to southern Europe and Africa. They are widespread as a breeding species in the UK, with particularly high densities on northern uplands but lower numbers in southern lowlands (especially south west England). Yellow stripes on back are visible in flight. Flight call an abrupt "scratch..". Jack Snipe: Medium, stocky sandpiper, mottled brown upperparts, paler underparts. Eats mollusks, insects, larvae, worms and seeds. The vast majority of snipe flushes are single birds. Preferred habitats are marshes, bogs, tundras and wet meadows. The Common Snipe may also be called the “Fantail Snipe”, and is a stocky shorebird. Song includes a far-carrying "chipper, chipper…" often at night - sometimes delivered from a fence post. We also include calls in flights between roosting and feeding areas that take place at night (eg, Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus), mainly because these are indistinguishable from migration calls. Both sexes are mottled brown above, with paler buff stripes on the back, dark streaks on the chest and pale under parts. The bills are sensitive, allowing the birds to feel the mud and sand as they probe for food. Snipe often make a high-pitched call when they flush, sometimes described as a scaipe. Except in early summer when the Gold/golden-backed snipe flies are in flight. They do have a couple of habits that makes them more conspicuous, especially in summer. The low, erratic flight typical of a flushed snipe means a lot of low shots that can put a hunting dog in danger.