The Antipodes Island snipe was first collected by Fairchild in 1887, and by Andreas Reischek in 1888.

[1] It was first described by Walter Rothschild in 1893 as Gallinago tristrami in honour of Henry Baker Tristram.

However, doubts were raised about the provenance of the type specimen, which appeared to be from the Auckland Islands, and Rothschild made a new description in 1927, recognising the Antipodes Island form as a subspecies of Coenocorypha aucklandica.

[1] The snipe is endemic to the Antipodes group, which has a total surface area of 22 km2 (8.5 sq mi).

[4] The snipe have been recorded as feeding on a variety of invertebrates, including annelids, amphipods, isopods, arachnids and insects.