Gallinago megala, Swinhoe, 1861

Bishop, K. David, 2023, The avifauna of Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia with comments on status, conservation, natural history and taxonomy, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 143 (1), pp. 3-62 : 31

SWINHOE’S SNIPE Gallinago megala #

Range Biak, Supiori.

Status Palearctic migrant. Fairly common southbound passage migrant and winter resident in New Guinea (Beehler & Pratt 2016) . Two collected by Ripley at Korrido in late November 1937 ( Mayr & Meyer de Schauensee 1939). On 10 November 2017, A. Walker (eBird checklist S46415319) saw what was probably this species at the tsunami swamp. However, given that the very similar Latham’s Snipe G. hardwickii ( Menkhorst et al. 2017) is also recorded on passage in New Guinea (Beehler & Pratt 2016) , the latter record must be considered unconfirmed.