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Notes on the breeding ecology of the extinct Stewart Island snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei)

  • Publication Type

    Journal

  • Publication Year

    2006

  • Author(s)

    C.M. Miskelly; P.J. Lange

  • Journal Name

    Notornis

  • Volume, Issue

    53, 4

  • Pagination

    339-352

  • Article Type

    Paper

Keywords

breeding ecology; Coenocorypha aucklandica; courtship feeding; Edgar Stead; Herbert Guthrie-Smith; New Zealand Snipe; Scolopacidae; Stewart Island snipe


Notes on the breeding ecology of the extinct Stewart Island snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei)

Notornis, 53 (4), 339-352

C.M. Miskelly; P.J. Lange (2006)

Article Type: Paper

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The little information that we have on the breeding ecology of the extinct Stewart Is snipe (Coenocorypha aucklandica iredalei) is based on books published by Herbert Guthrie-Smith and Major Robert Wilson following visits to Big South Cape I in 1923 and 1931 respectively. Wilson was a member of a party including Edgar Stead, who collected 4 clutches of eggs now in Canterbury Museum. We summarise the published information on breeding ecology of the Stewart Is snipe, and provide new information based on previously unpublished photographs of nests, and notes made by members of the 1923 and 1931 visits to Big South Cape I, including Edgar Stead’s unpublished diary. Stewart Is snipe appear to have had a different chick-rearing strategy from all other Coenocorypha snipe, with pairs jointly caring for a single chick. Guthrie-Smith’s 1923 record of courtship-feeding was the 1st reported instance for the entire family Scolopacidae.