A painted-snipe of southern South American wetlands, with a reddish-brown head, neck and upper breast and white-marked dark wings. It feeds along muddy water margins.
The head, neck, and upper breast are dark reddish-brown; the back and wings are dark gray-brown to black. White drop-shaped marks dot the wings, and the long greenish-yellow bill has an orange-tinged curved tip.
It forages in water and mud near vegetation, eating insects, water bugs, caterpillars, fly larvae, snails, leeches and plant material.
It makes a low nest of grass and reed stems on mud or among wet vegetation. Clutches usually contain two eggs, sometimes three, with dark markings on a creamy-white ground.
In shallow water it sweeps the head and bill from side to side in short arcs, keeping the bill tip submerged to catch small prey. It also probes soft mud shallowly and is more active at dusk.
The belly is white and a pale central stripe runs from the forehead to the nape. Juveniles are duller, with dense white streaking on the head and breast and cinnamon scaling on the upperwing.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.