Eurynorhynchus pygmeus

Spoon-billed Sandpiper is a small wading bird with no subspecies.

The snipe is found alone near water in shallow waters and in loose mud. When walking, the head is always lowered, and the mouth is constantly stretched into the water or mud, and the mouth is swept around and back in the water or mud while walking, and even when it turns back, the mouth does not have to come out of the water.

The snipe feeds mainly on insects, insect larvae, crustaceans, and other small invertebrates. The feeding method mainly uses the mouth to sweep around in the water or mud to find food. Sometimes they peck directly at the ground.

The snipe is mainly a traveller bird in China, and some are winter migrants. Spring moves through China in April-May and autumn in September-October.

The snipe breeds in the tundra of the northeast coast of Siberia and breeds in June-July. Nest in tundra swamps, lakes, ponds, stream banks and coastal tundra and grasslands. He especially likes to nest in the mossy grass near the freshwater pond. The nest is rudimentary, consisting mainly of parent birds digging a circular pit in the soft tundra ground and filling it with moss, dead grass and willow leaves. Each clutch lays 3-4 eggs. The eggs are pale brown in color with fine brown spots. The size of the eggs is 28-33 mm x 20-23 mm.

On July 5, 2019, the 43rd session of the World Heritage Assembly inscribed the Huangbo Sea Migratory Bird Habitat (Phase I) on the World Heritage List, becoming the 14th World Natural Heritage Site and the first Marine World Natural Heritage Site in China. Yancheng Dongtai Slii Wetland as the core area of the World Natural Heritage, in 2021, the number of newly recorded birds increased to 410 species, of which there are only more than 600 rare birds known as the "giant panda among birds" in the world, more than half of the spring and autumn every year in this forage, molt, stay for up to 3 months, here has become a true "bird paradise".

In March 2020, the Guangdong Provincial Forestry Bureau reported that 34 spoon-bill snipes were found in the Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve in Guangdong Province, and they had been eating on the beach for days to reserve energy for their migration journey. As one of the rarest birds in the world, there are an estimated 210 to 228 breeding pairs of spoon-billed snipes, far fewer than the giant panda. It is a small wading bird that breeds in the frozen terrain of northeastern Russia and winters in the wetlands of East and Southeast Asia.

The spoon-billed snipe is listed as critically endangered because its population is so small that it is experiencing extremely rapid decline. This is because many factors, including breeding, habitat loss through and wintering grounds, are affected by disturbance, pollution, hunting and climate change. Young birds have been low, leading to fears of rapid population ageing; There is an urgent need to take action to prevent the extinction of this species.

Since 2011, the UK has had an emergency protection plan for the snipe. Because of the difficulty of transporting the hatchlings from Russia to the UK, experts decided in 2012 to ship the eggs directly to the UK for incubation. Just hours after a week of flying the first batch of eggs to the UK by helicopter and plane, the first snipe has already broken its shell and more chicks are hatching, according to project leaders. They will be fertile and ready to raise the next generation; The removal of eggs from the nest encourages the birds to lay a new nest of eggs, effectively expanding their population.

Listed in the International Committee for Bird Conservation (CBP) Red Book of the World's Endangered Birds.

It was included in the List of Land Wild Animals under State Protection that are beneficial or have important economic and scientific research value (Item 171) issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000.

Listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN) 2018 ver 3.1 - Critically Endangered (CR).

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021).

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Origin: Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Russian Federation (East Asia Russia), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
Wandering: Canada, Philippines, Singapore, United States.
China: Shanghai, Fuzhou, Guangdong, Hainan Island, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
During its breeding period, the snipe mainly inhabits in tundra marshes, grasslands, lakes, streams, ponds and other waters along the Arctic coast. During the non-breeding period, it mainly lives in shoals and mud in coastal and estuarine areas, or on the edge of water bodies near the coast, and does not go deep into inland waters.

The forehead, head and nape of the snipe are chestnut red, with dark brown stripes. The central part of the wings, shoulders, and tertiary feathers are black, the margins are maroon, and the back is maroon with black spots. The corners of the wings are white, forming a white V-shaped line on the back. The feathers are black, the large overlying feathers have a broad white tip, and the secondary and inner primary feathers have a white base, which together with the white tip of the large overlying feathers form a broad white wing band on the wing. Waist and tail coverts white on both sides, black in the middle. The central tail feathers are black, and the two tail feathers are light gray. The base and chin of the mouth are white. The eye is darker at the beginning, with a black perforated eye line, and the perforated eye line is finer behind the eye. Brow area, sides of head, face, foreneck, side of neck and upper chest chestnut red, with fine brown longitudinal lines. The lower chest is