Coenocorypha is sometimes thought to be a relict taxon of an ancient lineage;[3] however, insufficient research has been done to prove this.

The austral snipes have long bills and short necks, wings, and tails.

The austral snipes are carnivorous, feeding on invertebrates found by probing in the soil and in compacted vegetation.

Bouts of feeding are characterised by continuous probing the soil with the full length of the bill.

Larger prey items are removed from the soil for easier manipulating and swallowing.

The most common prey items taken include earthworms, amphipods, beetle adults and larvae and the pupae of other insects.

Pair formation occurs some months before breeding, and males feed females as part of the courting rituals.

[11] Before breeding the male snipe also perform nocturnal aerial "hakawai" displays with calls followed by a non-vocal roar created by diving birds driving fast moving air across the rectrices of the tail.

The austral snipes evolved on oceanic islands without land mammals and were ecologically naive with regard to mammalian predators.

The island had also been the last refuge of the bush wren and the New Zealand greater short-tailed bat.