by Matt Holder and Jeremiah Trimble
The American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) published their decision to regard American populations of Common Snipe as distinct (Banks et al. 2002). What was once the North American subspecies Gallinago gallinago delicata has been elevated to species status G. delicata and given the English name Wilson’s Snipe, while the Old World taxon retains the English and scientific names of Common Snipe and G.gallinago, respectively. As a result of this split, the Birders Journal List of Canadian Birds was updated, and a decision was made to retain the Old World’s Common Snipe on the List based on a historical specimen record from Labrador (Holder 2003). This article provides background and a description of Canada’s first record of Common Snipe.