Drumming (also called
bleating or
winnowing) is a sound produced by
snipe as part of their
courtship display flights. The sound is produced mechanically (rather than vocally) by the vibration of the modified outer
tail feathers, held out at a wide angle to the body, in the slipstream of a power dive. The display is usually
crepuscular, or given throughout moonlit nights. The behaviour is generally characteristic of the genera
Coenocorypha,
Gallinago and
Lymnocryptes. Sounds made by the closely related
woodcocks (
Scolopax spp.) in the course of their 'roding' display flights may be
homologous to drumming.