#caprimulgiformes

[herpsandbirds]

Pennant-winged Nightjar (Caprimulgus vexillarius), male, family Caprimulgidae, order Caprimulgiformes, South Africa

photographs by Manfred Suter

[awkwardbirdsdreaming]

Griffember 8 (#85) - pennant-winged nightjar (LC) [breeding male]

I can't believe there's birds that actualy look like this! Found through sub-Saharan Africa, only males develop these long streamers, and only in the breeding season, so they are probably for display purposes.

Joining in gryphons with @ains-art

Also I couldn't decide between purple or green background:

Help

Purple

Green

Idk/can't choose/who cares

Voting ended onDec 11, 2025

[life-on-our-planet]

🪶🌑great-eared nightjar🌑🪶

[niqvassieart]

5-10 min nightjar studies to help me with a book illustration i was working on. Such beautiful and weird birds!

[hasellia]

2026DrawDinoDaily, Day 77, Marchosauria, 17/03/2026

Standard-winged Nightjar (Caprimulgus longipennis)

BIRB! I love how pictures of Standard-winged nightjars come with the subject either half asleep or "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE" haha! The breeding males aren't very standard in their wings though, so I don't know why that's their common name. Once per breeding season, many of the males grow one feather on each wing that is longer than their body. I think this only happen in roughly 5 out of the 39 species within the genus. Also, "longipennis" actually means "Long wings" so I REALLY don't know why they called it "standard" in English! Why are they called that!?

[best-bird-tournament]

Nightjar (Caprimulgiformes) order / Caprimulgidae family

Which is the best bird?

Least nighthawk

Common nighthawk

Lesser nighthawk

Great eared nightjar

Short-tailed nighthawk

Pennant-winged nightjar

Voting ended onJan 31

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Reptilia - Caprimulgiformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

As we move into the Strisores clade, our next order are the Caprimulgiformes, commonly known as “nightjars”, “bugeaters”, or “nighthawks”. Caprimulgiformes is composed on one family, Caprimulgidae, and 19 genera.

Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds, characterised by long pointed wings, short legs with small feet, and short beaks at the tip of a large mouth. Their primary source of food are night-flying insects, and they fill a similar role to insect-eating bats. Nightjars usually catch their prey by flying through insects with their wide mouths open. They have soft, cryptic plumage, allowing them to camouflage against trees while they sleep during the days. They have rictal bristles around their beak which function similarly to whiskers. Nightjars live on all continents except Antarctica, and some islands, in almost all habitats aside from the most arid deserts.

Nightjars are generally solitary, but will form flocks for the purpose of migration and/or for mating displays. They usually nest on the ground, laying one or two patterned eggs directly onto bare ground. It has been suggested and quoted that nightjars can move their eggs and chicks from the nesting site in the event of danger by carrying them in their mouths, but there is little evidence to support this idea. The nocturnal and secretive nature of nightjars makes it hard to study their behavior. It is unknown whether nightjars mate for life, but they are monogamous for the duration of the mating season.

Strisores have a well-represented fossil record, with fossils of most major strisorean lineages known from the Paleogene. Strisores evolved in the Eocene, with its two main extant lineages separating about 60–55 million years ago. At around 40 mya, the common ancestors of Caprimulgidae and Nyctibiidae diverged from those of the oilbird and frogmouths.

Do you have a favorite in Caprimulgiformes?

One or more of my favorite animals is in Caprimulgiformes

I love at least one or more of these animals

I like at least one or more of these animals

I am neutral about all of these animals

I dislike all of these animals

Voting ended onApr 25, 2025

Propaganda under the cut:

The Common Poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii) is one of the only birds that undergoes a form of hibernation, becoming torpid and with a much reduced body temperature for weeks or months. Other nightjars can also enter a state of torpor, but for shorter periods.

The European Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) is also known as the Common Goatsucker. This, along with their genus name, refers to an old myth that it would suckle from goats at night, causing them to cease to give milk. (Nightjars do not do this)

Nightjars have a reflective tapetum lucidum at the back of their eyes, causing their eyes to “glow” when lit up at night.

Nightjars do almost everything on the wing, including eating and drinking.

Several comic book heroes use the pseudonym “nighthawk”, including the detective Nelson Lee in “The Nelson Lee Library”, a Harvey Comics superhero, the cowboy Hannibal Hawkes in the DC Comics Universe, and several characters within the Marvel Comics Universe. In fact, there is an abundance of media using the name “nighthawk”, from art pieces, to films, to music, to sports teams, to racehorses, to aircraft, motorcycles, firearms, and amusement park rides. It’s possible that many of the people using this name only know that the nighthawk is a nocturnal bird, and not so much that it’s a small, big-mouthed, insect-eater.

[daily-bird-facts]

this is the plain nightjar! while the name is a bit blunt, it is indeed one of the most uniformly-plumaged of the nightjars. (apparently, nightjars are so named because of how jarring it is to hear one suddenly call in the dead of night.) it occurs throughout central Africa and also on the southwest Arabian Penninsula. a small-scale migrant, living in most open-sky environments within its range but only breeding in the northern arid savannah.

nocturnal bug-catchers, with their enormous eyes intended to be able to spot flying insects using even the smallest bit of light. individual birds may be grey, brown, or rust-colored, each suited to loiter in different spots - and their unpatterned plumage lends itself very well to the bare earth and grasses of this critter's chosen homes. slightly sexually dimorphic, which i find unusual for a nightjar; males bear white-bordered tails, whereas females do not.

they seem to take to rockfalls or trees for their daytime resting spots, using roads mainly for nighttime naps. they trust so much in their camouflage that they respond to disturbance with just continuing to sit, only going for an escape once it's clear they've been seen. those little legs are capable of quite the launch upwards to kick off flight. even with their large variation in plumage, there is not yet one which camouflages on asphalt. and that's probably for the better, seeing as cars are more likely to leave you be if they can see you. it's unusual for an apex predator to work that way, but so it goes.

25 June 2026