Schnepfen (Ausnahme: Waldschnepfen) Vorarlberg

Four species of the snipe family are relevant in the DACH region. The Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), at roughly 33 to 38 centimetres the largest and most robust of them, lives a solitary life in moist deciduous and mixed forests with dense undergrowth, clearings and soft, worm-rich soils. The common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) inhabits bogs, wet meadows and floodplains and is noticeably smaller. The jack snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus) is the smallest native snipe and appears in central Europe mainly as a secretive passage migrant and winter visitor in bogs and wetlands. The great snipe (Gallinago media) is now only an occasional migrant in Germany, with the last confirmed breeding records dating back about a hundred years.

In hunting law there is a clear divide. Only the woodcock is listed as huntable game under the Federal Hunting Act and has a defined open season, although several federal states such as Hesse and Berlin keep it on a year-round closed season. Common snipe, jack snipe and great snipe are protected in Germany under the Federal Nature Conservation Act and the EU Birds Directive and may not be hunted. The common snipe is additionally placed in a high threat category on the national Red List, mainly because of the drainage of bogs and wet meadows. Austria follows state-level hunting laws, where under certain conditions a spring hunt on the woodcock display flight is still permitted, and in Switzerland the woodcock is hunted in autumn in several cantons.

The Schnepfenstrich, the woodcock display flight, is the most storied form of snipe hunting. The term describes the crepuscular courtship flights of male woodcocks during the spring months, when the birds patrol along forest edges, clearings and rides with slow wingbeats while uttering their characteristic quorr and pixx calls. In Germany hunting on the spring flight has not been permitted since 1977, and today the woodcock is taken mainly in autumn by working it out of cover with a dog. For hunters the snipe family therefore remains a demanding chapter of game biology, where correct identification, respect for protected species and an attentive eye on the condition of woodlands, bogs and wet meadows matter more than the rare opportunity for a shot.