Square-tailed nightjar
| Square-tailed nightjar | |
|---|---|
 | |
_(6045934838).jpg) | |
| male and female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Caprimulgiformes |
| Family: | Caprimulgidae |
| Genus: | Caprimulgus |
| Species: | C. fossii |
| Binomial name | |
| Caprimulgus fossii Hartlaub, 1857 | |
The square-tailed nightjar or Mozambique nightjar (Caprimulgus fossii) is a species of nightjar in the Caprimulgidae family which is native to tropical and subtropical woodlands of the Afrotropics. It has an extensive range south of the African equator.
Range
It occurs mainly south of the equator in Africa, but enters the tropics during the northern hemisphere summer. An isolated race occurs in Equatorial Guinea and western Gabon. It is a seasonal visitor to the northern DRC, northern Tanzania, southern Kenya and southern Uganda. It occurs year round in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[2]
Call
This bird's call is a prolonged churring, which alternates between a fast and slow pace roughly every second. As such it differs from the similar long-tailed and slender-tailed nightjars which produce fast and slow churrs respectively.[2]
Subspecies
- C. f. fossii Hartlaub, 1857 – western Gabon and vicinity
- C. f. welwitschii Bocage, 1867 – mainly inland plateaus, DRC to northern Namibia
- C. f. mossambicus W.K.H. Peters, 1868 – lowlands and lowveld from the DRC to South Africa
- C. f. griseoplurus Clancey, 1965 – Kalahari desert and vicinity, seasonal in Botswana[2]
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Caprimulgus fossii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- 1 2 3 Holyoak, David Thomas (2001). Nightjars and their allies: the Caprimulgiformes. Oxford University Press. pp. 633–639, Plate 19.
External links
- Square-tailed nightjar - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.