How do you recognise a nightjar?

The European nightjar (Latvian Lēlis, Latin Caprimulgus europaeus) is a nocturnal bird with mottled brown and grey plumage. By day it rests on the ground or along a branch, where that colouring gives it effective camouflage, so you are unlikely to pick one out at rest. Its bill looks small, but it opens into a wide gape that the bird uses to catch flying insects at dusk. In practice a nightjar is recognised by sound rather than sight. The male's prolonged churring song is the characteristic sound of warm summer evenings in open woodland, and the guide notes that establishing a nightjar's presence is usually easier by listening than by searching with binoculars.

Sources

• Nightjars

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