The First Authentic Record of the Latham's Snipe Gallinago hardwickii for the Philippines.

Abstract

The Latham's Snipe Gallinago hardwickii breeds in southeastern Ussuriland, southern Sakhalin, southern Kuril Islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, and Kyushu during the northern summer and spends the northern winter in New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand (del Hoyo et al. 1996, Higgins & Davies 1996, Ornithological Society of Japan 2000). It has been suggested that this species migrates directly across the Pacific between the breeding and wintering grounds stopping only on New Guinea Island, because of the scarcity of collecting records from the intervening island chain including the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Philippines, and Molucca Islands (Frith et al. 1977, Higgins & Davies 1996). Although there were some 70 banding records from the Philippine Islands made during the Migratory Animal Pathological Survey (MAPS) conducted in the late 1960's (McClure & Leevalis 1972), they lacked supporting evidence such as photographs or specimens. Because of this lack of evidence and the difficulty of distinguishing this species from similar species, especially from the Swinhoe's Snipe G. megala, the MAPS records have not been accepted by later authors (Naarding 1984, 1985, duPont 1971, Dickinson et al. 1991, Kennedy et al. 2000). Other recent field observations reputedly of this species from the Philippines (e. g. Sargeant 1992) also lack conclusive evidence. During banding work conducted in December 1994 in the Philippines we captured two Latham's Snipe in Candaba Swamp in central Luzon. Here we report on this record, which constitutes the first authentic record of this species for the Philippines, with accompanying photographs. The record not only suggests the possibility of this species migrating through the Philippines, it also raises the possibility that a part of the population of this species may overwinter in these islands. Candaba Swamp covers an area of 32,000ha in the Pampanga River Basin in Pampanga and Bulacan Provinces, central Luzon. It is a complex of freshwater ponds, swamps and marshes with surrounding areas of seasonally flooded grassland, arable land and palm savanna on a vast alluvial flood plain (Scott 1989). Banding work in Candaba