Jerdon's nightjar (''Caprimulgus atripennis'') is a medium-sized

nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called bugeaters, their primary source of food ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

native to southern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. Formerly considered as a subspecies of the long-tailed nightjar, it is best recognized by its distinctive call which sounds like a wooden plank being beaten periodically with each note ending in a quaver. The common name commemorates Thomas C. Jerdon who described the species.

Taxonomy

Thomas C. Jerdon first described this species in an annotation to his 1845 treatment of the

jungle nightjar The jungle nightjar (''Caprimulgus indicus'') is a species of nightjar found in the Indian Subcontinent. It is found mainly on the edge of forests where it is seen or heard at dusk. The taxonomy of this and related nightjars is complex and a rang ...

(''C. indicus'') in the ''Illustrations of Indian ornithology''. Subsequently, it was sometimes lumped again with ''C. macrurus'', but the co-occurrence of this form and

large-tailed nightjar The large-tailed nightjar (''Caprimulgus macrurus'') is a species of nightjar known for its distinctive long, broad tail and cryptic plumage that allows it to blend into its surroundings. Found along the southern Himalayan foothills, eastern So ...

''C. macrurus'' without interbreeding in the northeast of the Indian peninsula was noted in 1987 suggesting their distinctness. It has since been reaffirmed as a full species based on studies of their vocalizations. The subspecies in Sri Lanka is ''C. a. aequabilis''. Jerdon's type locality mentioned as ''Ghauts'' has been considered to be the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats is a mountain range that stretches along the East Coast of India, eastern coast of the Indian peninsula. Covering an area of , it traverses the states and union territories of India, states of Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Prade ...

west of Nellore.

Description

Like other nightjars, it has a wide gape, long wings, soft downy plumage and nocturnal habits. At 26 cm in overall length, it is almost a head's length larger than the Indian nightjar (''C. asiaticus''), and differs from that species in its barred tail, rufous rear neck, and wing bars. The vermiculations on the crown are fine giving it a nearly uniform shade. The collar is blackish. The male has a white patch on each wing. Otherwise, their cryptic plumage is mainly variegated buff and brown, as typical for the dark

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

woodland nightjars. This has an unbroken white gorget like the long-tailed nightjar but the tail is shorter. The Sri Lankan ''aequabilis'' is slightly smaller and darker. Its typical call is a fast repetitive ''ch-woo-woo''. Another call is said to be a frog-like croak.

Behaviour and ecology

Open woodland, scrub, and cultivation is the habitat of this

nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...

bird. It flies after sundown with an easy, silent fluttering flight, appearing a bit like an outsized

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

at a casual glance. During the day, Jerdon's nightjar lies silent upon the ground, concealed by its plumage; it is then difficult to detect, blending in with the soil. Nocturnal insects, such as

s, are its food. Unlike the Indian nightjar (''C. asiaticus''), this species rarely rests on roads during the night, preferring to alight on bushes. This makes it harder to spot, since it is not so readily seen in vehicle headlights. It however roosts on the ground although calling from the trees. The breeding season is March to July in India and February to May in Sri Lanka. No nest is made; the two marbled eggs are placed upon the bare ground. The brooding bird, covering them closely with its camouflage plumage, is their best protection. The chicks can crawl away from the nest soon after hatching and hide among leaves when alarmed.

Conservation

Jerdon's nightjar has been listed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

since 2004, as it has a large range, and the population trend is considered stable.

References

External links

Photographs and other media
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1151433

Jerdon's nightjar Jerdon's nightjar (''Caprimulgus atripennis'') is a medium-sized nightjar species native to southern India and Sri Lanka. Formerly considered as a subspecies of the long-tailed nightjar, it is best recognized by its distinctive call which sounds l ...

Birds of India Birds of Sri Lanka

Taxa named by Thomas C. Jerdon