Music of the sky: meeting the common snipe

On the evening of 10 April 2018, we were walking the Žuvintas nature trail. It was a wonderful, calm moment when we suddenly heard a very strange, vibrating sound (similar to this recording from xeno-canto). Since I had read before that a bird called the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) exists, and the sound matched it exactly, my guess was confirmed at once.

At the time I still didn't know one incredible fact. It turns out the bird produces this sound — reminiscent of a goat's bleating, which is how it earned its Lithuanian name "perkūno oželis", literally "thunder's kid" — not with its voice or its beak, but with its tail feathers! During its courtship displays the bird climbs high into the air and suddenly dives downward. As it does, it spreads its tail wide, and the stiff feathers along its edges begin to vibrate hard against the wind, creating that mystical, mechanical sound.

It was a wonderful experience. I'm especially glad that in the photo I managed to capture it in flight at exactly that moment — tail spread, with those sound-making outer feathers clearly visible. Although the shot itself isn't technically perfect, I'll certainly try to repeat this moment in the future and capture it at even better quality.