This bird's breeding habitat is marshes and wet meadows with short vegetation in north-eastern Europe, including north-western Russia.

[2][3][4] The name of the current genus Gallinago is Neo-Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, "hen" and the suffix -ago, "resembling".

[6] At dusk during the breeding season, the males display at a lek (arena), standing erect with chest puffed and tail fanned out.

In their seasonal migrations between Sweden and sub-Saharan Africa, great snipes make non-stop flights of 4,000–7,000 km, lasting 60–90 h. During these flights, great snipes repeatedly changed altitudes around dawn and dusk, between average cruising heights about 2,000 m (above sea level) at night and around 4,000 m during daytime.

The species is experiencing a population decline, owing primarily to habitat loss, as well as to hunting in eastern Europe and in its African wintering range.

[1] The great snipe is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.