Fiery-necked Nightjars

On 16 October, 2013 I spent an evening at Haka Park catching and ringing nightjars. Fiery-necked Nightjar was the only species caught, and three birds in one evening was a reasonable catch.

The first one caught was an adult female, which we photographed for comparison shots between the male we caught recently. The most distinctive sexing feature was actually the white in the tail, not the white wing-bar.

Left: female. Right: male

The next two birds we caught in quick succession. It's possible they were even from the same nest, judging by their similar age and close proximity to each other.

Both were recorded as age 5, which means between 0 and 6 months old. We could actually be a bit more accurate on the age - they were likely laid on or near the full moon in August (although we can't be sure of this) and would have hatched about 18 days later. This would make them just over a month old, recently fledged, when we caught them.

One was male and the other female, sexed by the amount of white in the outer tail feathers.

The wing-bars of the two juveniles. Not much difference between male (left) and female (right).

Juvenile plumage is actually very distinct from adult plumage. Compare the wings of the two juvenile birds, followed by the one adult bird. The secondaries and coverts are very different in the two age groups. The primaries and primary coverts show less contrast between the ages.

Juvenile male (top) and female (bottom) outstretched wings.

Adult male outstretched wing.

One bird was also moulting its rictal bristles, something I hadn't seen before.

Waxy sheaths are still present on the newer rictal bristles.