01 October 2010

Nightjar ringing

Last year UK ringers caught over 230 Nightjars to try and find out more about their fantastic migration and demography. This species is believed to winter in tropical and South Africa. So far we have received recoveries from various countries including The Netherlands, Spain, France, Morocco and Algeria but there is much more we don't know yet.


Interestingly the notes in a Nightjars 'jar' or 'churr' are emitted at a rate of 30 or 40 per second and ringers can also testify to an interesting 'hiss' that is given by birds in the hand. This could be used to 'see off' any would be attackers by mimicking a snake.

Rebecca Nesbit has posted a clip on Youtube (below) which shows Mike Gould going through the process of Nightjar ringing.

Posted by Lee Barber at 16:10
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1 comment:

  1. Birds, Beasts and Bush Club10 October 2010 at 07:46

    Great post, thanks for the video. We get nightjars down here in South Africa but I have yet to catch one in a net! Found this very interesting.

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