Nightjar. 2019

[Summi]

Here's another major event from last night:

14:05
https://up.picr.de/35942924qq.jpg

[mogga]

°°°

Does anyone know anything about these throat movements? What do they mean, what are they for?

14:17

[yitmoth]

It's a means of thermoregulation (cooling) called gular fluttering. Owls, herons and various other birds do it, too. Here's some info specific to nightjars & their relatives.

[mogga]

Thanks, yitmoth!

[Hellem]

23:42 The nightjar flew away

[Shanta]

23:21 Male is nearby
23:22 Female flies off
23:24 male comes to incubate
23:42 Male flies off but is nearby
This time the male was on the eggs for 18 minutes, a long time. It may depend on how the weather conditions are. Think it was raining before the female left and maybe cold.

00:11 Female comes and flies off again
00:12 Now female settles down

[IceAge]

June 09.

Good morning,

07:44

[mogga]

°°°

Some small activities.

3:34 Repositioning on the eggs
4:24 Repositioning on eggs
4:38 Looking around / Impressive turn of the head
5:58 Repositioning on eggs

[yitmoth]

June 10

Last night the female took brooding breaks from 23:38 to 00:27 and from 02:47 to 02:59. The male sat on the eggs from 00:03 to 00:06, i.e. a little more than 3 minutes. Not sure how much that helps, but it was good to see him:

[Abigyl]

To all!!

I was very glad to find the forum few minutes ago.

I watched this "grey stone" on the cam during the weekend, but didn't understand what is it (Wiki wasn't enough in this case...).

It'll be nice to have more info about this bird.

Thanks for the opportunity to learn something new this season

[Biker]

*
well, i recently found something, didn't dare so far to share the link here.
In 1906 a couple had various songbirds and also nightjars in foster in their house.
they described many of their behaviour, but they knew of course that such are not 1:1 ident with those in nature.
very mixed feelings when reading, because of this kind of bird keeping, (birds don't belong locked up , (never ) when they are healthy) - but it is still interesting. ( )

Beobachtungen bei der Zucht des Ziegenmelkers {Caprimulgus eurojxieusL.). Von Dr. O. Heinrotl
Observations during breeding of the nightjar {Caprimulgus eurojxieusL.). By Dr. O. Heinrotl

https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Journal-fuer ... 6-0088.pdf

[Hellem]

23:58 The nightjar flew away

[Hellem]

...It'll be nice to have more info about this bird...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_nightjar

[Abigyl]

00:22 The bird came back.

I saw the eggs

[yitmoth]

June 11

I saw the eggs

Yeah, actually there were quite a few brooding breaks last night. The female was away from 23:12 to 23:33, 23:58 to 00:22, 02:32 to 03:02, and 03:10 to 03:16. But during two of those breaks the male appeared within less than a minute, and sat on the eggs from 23:13 to 23:29 and 02:32 to 02:50.

On the IR cam you notice how much darker the male nightjar is; here are two shots from the 02:32 break, separated by about 25 seconds:





PS Thanks, Biker, for that article. My German is pretty poor, but the pictures at the end (Lichtdruck?!) are wonderful.

[Fleur]

The cam zooms closer

[Shanta]

Many thanks for report, info, pics and video


Biker that was more than 100 years ago and I really hope that at the present time no one keeps a healthy nightjar in the house.
Have just read the beginning and I'm curious if there are similarities with nightjars living in the wild nature.

Yitmoth yes, the male is much darker

Collage of sitting male and female


Here I have marked the places that help me to ID the sitting male or female. In pic 3 with two markings, the female has more white at the bottom of her head or it is at the neck ... until now I have not found out yet

[Shanta]

Also I found a video (it's in german) about nightjars. Peter Gäth watched nightjars for some years and reported about it. He also explains how the clapping (don't know the right word in english) with the wings works.

[Biker]

*
thanks, Shanta

by Shanta » June 11th, 2019, 4:04 pm
Have just read the beginning and I'm curious if there are similarities with nightjars living in the wild nature.

well, we could already see some described things, e.g. the movement mimicry. The pendulum movements.
all actions begin and end with those movements, which serve camouflage.
clean, scratch, fly up - nothing happens without they rocking sideways.

15:57

edit . i cutted the clip, 30 sec away from the beginning

[Rita]

How interesting all this information. There are so many dedicated people on the forum who provide
all this useful stuff. Much appreciated. Awesome bird.