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South American painted-snipe

species of bird

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ1261152
Source-derived summary

The South American painted-snipe (Nycticryphes semicollaris), or lesser painted-snipe, is a shorebird in the family Rostratulidae. There are two other species in its family, the Australian painted-snipe and the greater painted-snipe.

Description

Head and neck dark red-brown with a yellow stripe on the crown; upperparts dark grey-brown, spotted white; underparts white. Although the female may be slightly larger and brighter, in contrast to the two other species in the family, the South American painted-snipe is not strongly sexually dimorphic. It has a relatively long, decurved, bill. It has webbed feet, also a difference from the other painted snipe. Measurements: 19–23 cm in length; 65–86 g in weight.

Vocalizations

A hoarse, hissing "wee-oo" has been recorded from birds in captivity.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in the southern third of South America, from southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to Chile and Argentina. It inhabits lowland freshwater wetlands, including wet grasslands.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “South American painted-snipe” as species of bird. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around South, American and painted-snipe.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current 151-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with South, American and painted-snipe providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “South American painted-snipe”, the useful work is to connect “species of bird” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1261152. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.

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Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “South American painted-snipe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow South American painted-snipe primary sources, South American painted-snipe archive and South research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from South American painted-snipe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.