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'''Nightjars''' are medium-sized [[nocturnal]] or [[crepuscular]] [[bird]]s in the subfamily Caprimulginae and in the [[family (biology)|family]] '''Caprimulgidae''', characterised by long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes called '''goatsuckers''', due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats (the [[Latin]] for goatsucker is ''Caprimulgus''), or '''bugeaters''',<ref name="NebraskaBug"/> their primary source of food being insects. Some [[New World]] species are called '''[[Nighthawk|nighthawks]]'''. The English word 'nightjar' originally referred to the [[European nightjar]].
'''Nightjars''' are medium-sized [[nocturnal]] or [[crepuscular]] [[bird]]s in the subfamily Caprimulginae and in the [[family (biology)|family]] '''Caprimulgidae''', characterised by long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes called '''goatsuckers''', due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats (the [[Latin]] for goatsucker is ''Caprimulgus''), or '''bugeaters''',<ref name="NebraskaBug"/> their primary source of food being insects. Some [[New World]] species are called '''[[Nighthawk|nighthawks]]'''. The English word "nightjar" originally referred to the [[European nightjar]].


Nightjars are found around the world except in New Zealand and some islands of Oceania. They are mostly active in the late evening and in early morning or at night, usually nest on the ground, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.
Nightjars are found around the world except in New Zealand and some islands of Oceania. They are mostly active in the late evening and in early morning or at night, usually nest on the ground, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.

Revision as of 03:40, 5 August 2020

This article is about the family of birds. For the aircraft, see Gloster Nightjar. For the cryptid sometimes called "goat sucker", see Chupacabra.
Nightjar
Great eared nightjar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Strisores
Order: Caprimulgiformes
Family: Caprimulgidae
Vigors, 1825
Subfamilies
     Global range of nightjars and allies

Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the subfamily Caprimulginae and in the family Caprimulgidae, characterised by long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats (the Latin for goatsucker is Caprimulgus), or bugeaters,[1] their primary source of food being insects. Some New World species are called nighthawks. The English word "nightjar" originally referred to the European nightjar.

Nightjars are found around the world except in New Zealand and some islands of Oceania. They are mostly active in the late evening and in early morning or at night, usually nest on the ground, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.

Most have small feet, of little use for walking, and long pointed wings. Their soft plumage is cryptically coloured to resemble bark or leaves. Some species, unusual for birds, perch along a branch, rather than across it. This helps to conceal them during the day.

The common poorwill, Phalaenoptilus nuttallii, is unique as a bird that undergoes a form of hibernation, becoming torpid and with a much reduced body temperature for weeks or months, although other nightjars can enter a state of torpor for shorter periods.[2]

Nightjars lay one or two patterned eggs directly onto bare ground. It has been suggested that nightjars will move their eggs and chicks from the nesting site in the event of danger by carrying them in their mouths. This suggestion has been repeated many times in ornithology books, but surveys of nightjar research have found very little evidence to support this idea.[3][4]

Systematics

Traditionally, nightjars have been divided into three subfamilies: the Caprimulginae, or typical nightjars with 79 known species, and the Chordeilinae, or nighthawks of the New World with 10 known species. The two groups are similar in most respects, but the typical nightjars have rictal bristles, longer bills, and softer plumage. In their pioneering DNA-DNA hybridisation work, Sibley and Ahlquist found that the genetic difference between the eared nightjars and the typical nightjars was, in fact, greater than that between the typical nightjars and the nighthawks of the New World. Accordingly, they placed the eared nightjars in a separate family: Eurostopodidae (9 known species), but the family has not yet been widely adopted.

Subsequent work, both morphological and genetic, has provided support for the separation of the typical and the eared nightjars, and some authorities have adopted this Sibley-Ahlquist recommendation, and also the more far-reaching one to group all the owls (traditionally Strigiformes) together in the Caprimulgiformes. The listing below retains a more orthodox arrangement, but recognise the eared nightjars as a separate group. For more detail and an alternative classification scheme, see Caprimulgiformes and Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.

Phylogeny of Caprimulgidae[5]

Also see a list of nightjars, sortable by common and binomial names.

Distribution and habitat

The Madagascan nightjar is restricted to the islands of Madagascar and the Seychelles

Nightjars inhabit all (continents other than Antarctica). and are not known to live in extremely arid desert regions, as well as in some island groups such as Madagascar, the Seychelles, New Caledonia and the islands of Caribbean.[7]. Nightjars can occupy all elevations from sea level to 4,200 m (13,800 ft), and a number of species are montane specialists. Nightjars occupy a wide range of habitats, from deserts to rainforests but are most common in open country with some vegetation.[7] The nighthawks are confined to the New World, and the eared nightjars to Asia and Australia.[7]

A number of species undertake migrations, although the secretive nature of the family may account for the incomplete understanding of their migratory habits. Species that live in the far north, such as the European nightjar or the common nighthawk, migrate southward with the onset of winter. Geolocators placed on European nightjars in southern England found they wintered in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[8] Other species make shorter migrations.[7]

Conservation and status

Some species of nightjar are threatened with extinction. It has been suggested that road-kills of this species by cars are a major cause of mortality for many members of the family because of their habit of resting and roosting on roads.[9]

Developing conservation strategies for some species presents a particular challenge in that scientists do not have enough data to determine whether or not a species is endangered due to the difficulty in locating, identifying and/or categorizing their limited number (e.g. 10,000) known to exist, a good example being the Vaurie's nightjar in China's south-western Xinjiang Provence (as seen only once in-hand). Surveys in the 1970s and 1990s failed to find the species.[10], implying that the species has become extinct, endangered, or found only to a few small areas.

References

  1. ^ a b U. S. An Index to the United States of America: Historical, Geographical and Political. A Handbook of Reference Combining the "curious" in U. S. History. Boston, MA: D. Lothrop Company. 1890. p. 77.
  2. ^ Lane JE, Brigham RM, Swanson DL (2004). "Daily torpor in free-ranging whip-poor-wills (Caprimulgus vociferus)". Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 77 (2): 297–304. doi:10.1086/380210. PMID 15095249.
  3. ^ Jackson, H.D. (2007). "A review of the evidence for the translocation of eggs and young by nightjars (Caprimulgidae)". Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology. 78 (3): 561–572. doi:10.2989/OSTRICH.2007.78.3.2.313.
  4. ^ Jackson, H.D. (1985). "Commentary and Observations on the Alleged Transportation of Eggs and Young by Caprimulgids" (PDF). Wilson Bulletin. 97 (3): 381–385.
  5. ^ Boyd, John (2007). "Caprimulgidae: Nightjars, Nighthawks" (PDF). John Boyd's website. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  6. ^ "Comparison of IOC 8.1 with other world lists". IOC World Bird List. v8.1. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d Cleere, N. (2017). del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi; Christie, David A.; de Juana, Eduardo (eds.). "Nightjars (Caprimulgidae)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  8. ^ Cresswell, Brian; Edwards, Darren (February 2013). "Geolocators reveal wintering areas of European Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus)" (PDF). Bird Study. 60 (1): 77–86. doi:10.1080/00063657.2012.748714.
  9. ^ Jackson, H.D.; Slotow, R. (10 July 2015). "A review of Afrotropical nightjar mortality, mainly road kills". Ostrich. 73 (3–4): 147–161. doi:10.1080/00306525.2002.11446745.
  10. ^ Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 5, Birdlife International/Lynx Edicions, 1999
  11. ^ "The State of Nebraska - An Introduction to the Cornhuskers State from NETSTATE.COM". www.netstate.com. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  12. ^ Nancy Capace, Encyclopedia of Nebraska. Somerset Publishers, Inc., Jan 1, 1999, p2-3
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