Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Caprimulgiformes > Caprimulgidae > Caprimulgus > Caprimulgus europaeus

Caprimulgus europaeus (European Nightjar)

Wikipedia Abstract

The European nightjar, Eurasian nightjar or just nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) is a crepuscular and nocturnal bird in the nightjar family that breeds across most of Europe and temperate Asia. The Latin generic name refers to the old myth that the nocturnal nightjar suckled goats, causing them to cease to give milk. The six subspecies differ clinally, the birds becoming smaller and paler towards the east of the range. All populations are migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. Their densely patterned grey and brown plumage makes individuals difficult to see in the daytime when they rest on the ground or perch motionless along a branch, although the male shows white patches in the wings and tail as he flies at night.
View Wikipedia Record: Caprimulgus europaeus

Infraspecies

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
16
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.24445
EDGE Score: 1.83169

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  71 grams
Birth Weight [2]  6 grams
Female Weight [1]  75 grams
Male Weight [1]  68 grams
Weight Dimorphism [1]  10.3 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates)
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  100 %
Forages - Aerial [3]  10 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  10 %
Forages - Understory [3]  60 %
Forages - Ground [3]  20 %
Clutch Size [6]  1
Clutches / Year [2]  2
Fledging [2]  17 days
Incubation [5]  18 days
Mating Display [7]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Maximum Longevity [4]  12 years
Migration [8]  Intercontinental
Nocturnal [8]  Yes
Wing Span [5]  24 inches (.6 m)
Female Maturity [4]  1 year
Male Maturity [4]  1 year

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Range Map

External References

Audio

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Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
5British Trust for Ornithology
6Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
7Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
8Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0