Stout, short legged, long-billed shorebird. The legs and feet are between yellowish-olive to greenish-grey. Viewed in thickly vegetated swampland. Head and neck veined and patterned with dark brown stripes and gold edges. The belly is white with brown expecting stripes on the flanks and never on the belly. The Madagascar snipe is a wader type. Cryptic, the blackish bill is very long, straight and fairly robust. 

Breeding befall in from July to January. The bird breed in marshland, everglade and muddy area.The bird nest is a saucer-shaped of dry grass in the drier areas. The snipe forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking invertebrates, insects and worms, seeds and plants. 

Most often seen flushes explosively. Display vocalization is a long accelerating series of «  kik » notes. Spectacular aerial parade are at times followed by powerful stoop during which the bird makes tail feathers drumming sound. Among aerial parade flying high in circle.

The bird population is estimated at 1 800 to 7 500 individuals. They viewed in small groups of 4-8.

The species commits on the conservation of wetland-edge. The bird is vulnerable to hunting for food, for subsistence use or local trade. Species is considered uncommon. The species lean on the conversion of wetland habitat to rice cultivation.