Vanishing bird: the mystery of the ‘near-mythical’ Australian painted-snipe

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Exposing the Big Game's avatarThe Extinction Chronicles

Sightings are so rare that no one has recorded the call of these elusive waders but a mission has begun to finally learn where they go when they disappear

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/08/vanishing-bird-the-mystery-of-the-near-mythical-australian-painted-snipe?fbclid=IwAR2pC7pbKcmOJzomOqfnZQJwKB76uWixoTzn2Rm27t32s7JCvbHOH45nRug

Australian painted-snipes bathing in shallow waters
Fewer than 350 Australian painted-snipes are thought to remain but the reason there are so few is not entirely clear because researchers lack knowledge about the species.Photograph: David Stowe

Harry SaddlerSat 7 Jan 2023 14.00 EST

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“Near-mythical” is how the ecologist Matthew Herring describes the Australian painted-snipe – one of this continent’s rarest birds.

“Some of these terms get thrown around,” Herring says, “but they really are.”

It is believed there are only about 340 individuals left, but that’s not all that makes them rare. Australian painted-snipes exemplify the saying “out of sight, out of mind”. Even birdwatchers with decades in the field forget they exist.

“They’re a…

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