The Invisible Bird

An Indian Nightjar clicked by Mr. Rick Toor at Sattal,Uttarakhand.

 Nightjars are mysterious birds. They are    
 nocturnal birds which live a secretive            
 lifestyle. Most people only consider owls as  
 the birds which rule the nights and consider  
 them to be the only nocturnal birds but what
 they do not know is that owls share their
 nights with another nocturnal species, the
 Nightjar.

 Nightjars are medium sized bird with long
 wings, short legs and a very short bills. They
 mostly sit flat on the ground or can be seen
 perched on dry and hardwood tree branches
 with their outstanding camouflage which
 blends perfectly with the surroundings
 making them extremely hard to spot during the day. I, myself on one occasion passed by the side of a Jungle Nightjar and not knowing it was in front of me, it suddenly flew off with great speed leaving me startled but enough to see by the colour that it was a Jungle Nightjar. All the nightjars come into the order of "Caprimulgiformes" which have been divided into three subfamilies: the "Caprimulginae", the typical nightjars with 79 known species, the "Chordilinae" or Nighthawks with 10 known species and the Eared Nightjars are placed in a separate family called "Eurostopodidae" (*this family has not yet been widely adopted) with 9 known species.

In many European languages, the Nightjar is known as the ‘goatsucker,’ with the genus name "Caprimulgus" deriving from the Latin for ‘milker of goats’. It was believed that Nightjars fed from goats due to often being found in close proximity to livestock. In reality, this insectivorous species would have been searching for prey associated with domestic animals. Others believed the calls of the Nightjar were the sound of witches hiding in the bushes.
The main diet of these peculiar birds consists of insects in which they prefer moths and other large insects. They can fly very long distances for feeding as it requires a lot of insects to fill its appetite and has been recorded to go until a 6km radius of its nesting site to find food.

Nightjars lay one or two eggs in small clearing soft dense forest on bare ground . Some nightjars surround their nest with some twigs and leaves while some just lay them out in the open and sit upon them so that the light which reflects off eggs doesn't attract predators. The nightjar being a master of disguise will not fly away if its incubating its eggs as it believes that it won't be seen and sometimes you may walk by its side and it will remain their to protect its eggs.
Nightjars become quite active during their breeding season and you may hear their calls near their feeding and nesting areas in their habitat starting from dusk and sometimes continuing till next morning.
Road Kills is one of the major reason of decrease in population of this species because of its habit of resting and roosting near roads. Once, I also saw a Savanna Nightjar sitting in the middle of the dirt track which leads to my farmhouse in Ropar, Punjab. There is an uncertain amount of data about the population of this species due the difficulty of finding and identifying this species of birds.

In the past I have seen quite a few different species of nightjars and nighthawks but the first time I tried to get its photo was when I went to Kalesar National Park, Haryana on 18th April, 2019. After a full day of birding near the Yamuna river we went to rest in the Kalesar forest rest house for the night and about near 7:00pm I heard a peculiar sound I had heard before, besides the house. I recorded the sound and sent it to a fellow birder. We both agreed that it was the call of a Large Tailed Nightjar. I was very happy  knowing that it was Large Tailed Nightjar as I had never seen this particular Nightjar before. I asked the forest guard to get me a torch so that I can see the bird which was extremely close in the the undercover of bamboo and sal trees. As soon as I got the torch I went down to the porch of the house and set up my tripod and camera with the torch. There was a steep cliff which went down to the Yamuna river bank and had a lot of thick branched trees. I scanned the area with my torch and as soon as the light form my torch hit the nightjar, its eye started glowing like a ruby and I recognised it. I took my camera and tried to focus on it but due to low light I got very dark and shaky shots and only star a few seconds it flew away leaving me disappointed. after a few minutes I heard its call again and located on another far away tree in thick underbrush. I could see its eye glowing under the torch light but still I couldn't take the photo due to thick bushes. We stood there just looking at it from a distance of 15-20m and hearing its loud and continuous call for about half an hour. We were really tired and just as we were about to go back, the nightjar astonishingly came and sat just in front of us and I was extremely amazed. I focused my camera on it as fast as I could after which I got many clear shots while it was calling. After I got my proper clear shot it flew away as if it had specially sat upon an open perch for me. I was filled with joy, as it was the first time I had clicked a Nightjar though I had seen it many times before and I hope to see more of these mysterious birds in the future.

The Large Tailed Nightjar I clicked at Kalesar National Park..