Nightjar

Nightjars are nocturnal birds and can be seen hawking for food at dusk and dawn. With pointed wings and a long tails their shape is similar to a kestrel or cuckoo. Their cryptic, grey-brown, mottled, streaked and barred plumage provides ideal camouflage in the daytime.

They have an almost supernatural reputation with their silent flight and their mythical ability to steal milk from goats. The first indication that a nightjar is near is usually the male's churring song, rising and falling with a ventriloquial quality.

Nightjars can be found on heathlands, moorlands, in open woodland with clearings and in recently felled conifer plantations. They are most numerous in southern England with good numbers in the New Forest, Dorset and Surrey heathlands and Thetford Forest in Suffolk. They are also found in parts of Wales, northern England and SW Scotland. RSPB reserves with nightjars are - Arne, Dorset; Aylesbeare, Devon and Minsmere and North Warren, Suffolk.