The Snares Island Snipe has a stocky body and relatively short bill and legs. It probes the ground and mud for invertebrates.
Compared with other living New Zealand snipes, it is stockier, with a relatively short bill and legs. The belly is barred; males tend to have clearer buff feather edges on the back and more yellowish legs.
Pairs walk over the ground and probe soil and mud for worms and other invertebrates. Adults also feed their chicks.
Both parents incubate two large eggs in a concealed ground nest. Chicks leave on hatching day; the male tends the first and the female the second. Each parent-chick pair lives separately, with care lasting 8–11 weeks.
Foods include amphipods, earthworms, beetles and fly or beetle larvae and pupae. Males feed females for about three weeks before laying. Parents provision chicks, which begin self-feeding at about two weeks.
Juveniles are grayer and duller than adults, with olive legs.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.