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European Nightjar

European Nightjar

Caprimulgus europaeus

Identify the European Nightjar by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The European Nightjar is a nocturnal, cryptically patterned insect-eater of open woods and heaths that breeds across most of Europe and the wider Palearctic and winters in sub-Saharan Africa. Its mottled grey-brown plumage makes it almost invisible by day, while males flash white patches in the wings and tail during buoyant night flights and deliver a long, purring “churr”. Numbers have fallen locally due to habitat loss and declining insects.

Did you know?

  • Its scientific name, Caprimulgus (“goat-milker”), comes from an old myth that nightjars suckled goats.
  • It drinks and even bathes on the wing, skimming the water in flight.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

About the size of a Fieldfare, with a long tail and long wings, a large head and soft grey and rusty-brown camouflage patterning. The bill is tiny, but the gape opens very wide. The male has clear white spots near the wingtips and at the tail corners. The song is a long, monotonous churring trill.

Family

Caprimulgidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

brown, grey, black, white

About the habitat

Dry, open habitats with scattered trees and shrubs: pine heaths, heathland, forest clearings and clear-cuts, young plantations, dunes and bog edges.

Diet

Night-flying insects, especially moths and beetles, caught on the wing with its very wide, bristle-fringed gape; it hunts by sight against the night sky.

Behaviour

Active at dusk and night; forages by hawking and sallying low over open areas. Roosts on the ground or lengthwise along branches. In spring the male sings a sustained churring song from perches and displays with wing-claps. It nests on the bare ground without building a nest, laying two blotched eggs; the downy young leave the nest site early. It drinks and even bathes on the wing.

Sources

Photo: Dûrzan cîrano, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Şivanxapînok.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC732175, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/732175

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_nightjar

See also