Vanishing bird: the mystery of the ‘near-mythical’ Australian painted-snipe

Fewer than 350 Australian painted-snipes are thought to remain but the reason there are so few is not entirely clear because researchers lack knowledge about the species. Photograph: David Stowe

“Near-mythical” is how the ecologist Matthew Herring describes the Australian painted-snipe – one of this continent’s rarest birds.

“Some of these terms get thrown around,” Herring says, “but they really are.”