FeedingFeeding

Feeding

The Australian Painted Snipe eats plant material, seeds, insects, worms and molluscs, crustaceans and other invertebrates (Marchant and Higgins 1993).

This species is mainly crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), preferring to sit or stand quietly under cover of grass, reeds or other dense cover during day, becoming more active at dawn, dusk and during night. They generally remain in dense cover when feeding, although may forage over nearby mudflats and other open areas such as ploughed land or grassland (Marchant and Higgins 1993). The species may have quite specific foraging habitat requirements, but these are not well understood and further study is required.

Feeding behaviour is likely to be different in wetlands where Australian Painted Snipe are present for breeding compared to sites that may act as refuges or stop-over sites, e.g. sewage ponds, water storages. Behaviour is likely to change depending on the height and density of wetland vegetation.