Nature · Birds

Nightjar

Summer visitor · 24–28 cm

Caprimulgus europaeus — Caprimulgidae (nightjars)

A crepuscular bird of heath and young conifer plantation whose male delivers a long mechanical churring trill at dusk, sometimes for minutes at a stretch. By day it lies along a branch or on the ground, invisible in bark-patterned plumage. Its scientific name means "goat-milker", from an ancient belief that it suckled goats at night, and its wide gape is for catching moths in flight.

How to spot them

▸A sustained mechanical churring trill at dusk, rising and falling, like a clockwork toy unwinding
▸The male turns his head while churring, so the sound seems to shift about — very hard to locate
▸Bark-patterned grey-brown plumage; lies lengthwise along a branch by day
▸Long wings and long tail in flight, bounding and silent like a giant moth; male shows white wing and tail spots
▸Wing-clapping display flight over heather and clear-fell at dusk

How to know it

A long mechanical churring trill at dusk, rising and falling like a clockwork toy unwinding, the singer turning his head so the sound seems to move

The nightjar's churr — the male may churr for minutes without a break.

Lies lengthwise along a branch by day in bark-patterned plumage, all but invisible

Nightjar — its camouflage is why it is almost never seen in daylight.

Its scientific name means 'goat-milker', from a belief that it suckled goats in the dark

Nightjar — Caprimulgus europaeus; the same belief gives 'goatsucker'.

Catches moths on the wing in a huge gape fringed with bristles, hunting at dusk over heath and clear-fell

Nightjar — Caprimulgidae.

Males clap their wings above the back in display over young conifer plantations at dusk

Nightjar — the wing-clap is audible at a distance.

Counted as churring males, about 4,600 at the last national survey in 2004

Nightjar — the BTO's Heathland Birds Survey revisited it in 2025.

Dialect names include 'goatsucker', 'fern owl', 'puckeridge' and 'eve-jar'

Nightjar — 'jar' is the churring sound itself.

Quick-fire facts

•Scientific name Caprimulgus europaeus: caprimulgus is Latin for 'goat-milker', from the ancient belief that it took milk from goats at night
•The most recent national survey, in 2004, estimated about 4,600 churring males, an increase of 36% over the previous twelve years; that figure is now over twenty years old, and the BTO's Heathland Birds Survey ran again in 2025
•Amber-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021); it is not on Schedule 1 in Great Britain, though it is protected under Schedule 1 in Northern Ireland
•The churr is a true vocalisation, not a mechanical sound; the male also claps his wings together above his back in display
•The word 'jar' in the name is the churring noise; other names include 'goatsucker', 'fern owl', 'eve-jar' and 'puckeridge'
•It hunts moths and beetles with a huge gape fringed with rictal bristles, and has a pectinate (comb-like) middle claw
•It nests on bare ground with no nest at all, and favours heathland and the clear-fell and restock stages of conifer plantation
•It winters in sub-Saharan Africa, chiefly in the Congo basin and southern Africa
•The UK range contracted about 45% between the 1968–72 and 2008–11 atlases, though numbers rose again with forestry clear-fell

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Sources

British Trust for Ornithology — BirdFacts: Nightjar
British Trust for Ornithology — Heathland Birds Survey