Rufous-cheeked Nightjar (Caprimulgus rufigena)

Cover image: Rufous-cheeked Nightjar by Ryan Tippett – Carnarvon district, Northern Cape –  BirdPix No. 97082

Nightjars belong to the family CAPRIMULGIDAE. They are medium-sized birds with long wings, short legs, very short bills and well developed rictal bristles. The bill opens very wide and has a slightly hooked upper tip. Their plumage is cryptically coloured to resemble bark, leaves or stones. Nightjars are mostly crepuscular or nocturnal and feed on flying insects. There is 1 genus (Caprimulgus) and 7 species in southern Africa.

Identification

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is a fairly small species. The sexes are similar, differing slightly in plumage coloration. Identification of this species, as with most nightjars, is easiest by vocalisation: a prolonged, unvarying churr preceded by three or four gulping notes.

Adult males have blackish crown stripe feathers with rufous edges and there is an indistinct pale streak above the eye. The sides of the face are dusky with small rufous spots. The nuchal collar is rufous or buff-coloured. The upper parts are grey, with fine and dense irregular lines, and narrow blackish streaks. The scapulars have bold black streaks with cinnamon-buff blotches. The coverts are brown or dusky-coloured with buff blotches, rufous barring and dense, greyish irregular lines. The chin and upper throat are buff-coloured with fine barring and dark markings with 2 large white patches, 1 on each side of the throat. The breast is dull brownish-grey with buff blotches and mottling. The belly and under tail coverts are pale buff with narrow blackish-brown bars. The central tail feathers are grey, with coarse, blackish vermiculations and narrow blackish bars. The outer tail feathers are similar but have prominent white tips, around 1/3 of the length of the tail.

The flight feathers are mostly black with large white patches in primaries 7 to 10. The inner primaries and secondaries carry incomplete rufous bars. The bill and rictal bristles are black, the eyes are dark brown and the legs and feet are pale brownish.

Adult females resemble the males, but carry smaller, rufous (not white), spots on the primaries. Females also mostly lack the white outer tail tips.

Juveniles are similar to females, but are browner and plainer overall.

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is often difficult to distinguish from other nightjars in the field. It most resembles the larger European Nightjar. The latter lacks the rufous nuchal collar, has less prominent markings on the wing coverts and females lack pale spots on the primaries and outer tail feathers. The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is easily separated from most locally breeding species on call. The Square-tailed Nightjar also has a churring song, but its call ‘shifts gear’ regularly. The Square-tailed Nightjar differs in having a white (male) or buff (female) trailing edge on the wings and a white outer tail extending along the entire length of the tail. The Fiery-necked Nightjar has a broader, more obvious nuchal collar and rufous ear coverts.

Status and Distribution

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is a locally common breeding summer migrant to southern Africa. It breeds from Angola and southern Zambia to South Africa. The non-breeding range extends from northern Zambia to Sudan and across to Cameroon and Nigeria. In southern Africa the Rufous-cheeked Nightjar breeds over much of the arid western and central regions, including the Northern Cape, western Free State, North West Province and Western and northern Limpopo. It also breeds in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is absent from the higher rainfall east coast and lowveld. It is also absent from the most arid parts of the Namib Desert and most of the winter rainfall Western Cape. Its general absence from the Western Cape is probably due to the lower numbers of insects found there during summer.

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is common throughout much of its core range and is the most numerous nightjar in Botswana and the Northern Cape.

It is easily overlooked and may be more abundant than records show. The historical range of the Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is unlikely to have changed much. It is not considered threatened and has a fairly wide habitat tolerance, including disturbed areas.

Habitat

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar mainly inhabits Karoo and Namib semi-desert and dry, open woodland, including Vachellia (Acacia), Mopane (Colophospermum mopane) and miombo (Brachystegia) woodlands. In northern Botswana it is found along the edges of natural clearings in woodland. It occurs less frequently in dry grasslands. The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is most common in dry Kalahari savanna and semi-arid Nama-Karoo shrublands. It prefers well-drained soil for breeding, particularly on stony or gravelly substrate, and often in very bare areas. The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is regularly found on roads at night, especially while on passage.

Behaviour

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is an intra-African breeding migrant. Birds arrive in southern Africa in late August and early September, with most birds departing for their non-breeding grounds by mid April into early May. It is largely absent from southern Africa in winter, though small numbers have been recorded during this period, especially in Zimbabwe.

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar roosts on the ground during the day in the shade of a bush or tree, and sometimes in long grass. It is usually found singly or in pairs. If approached, lowers chin to ground, giving hump-backed appearance. If flushed, flies with erratic wing-beats before suddenly landing at the base of a bush or sometimes on a low branch.

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is mainly crepuscular, foraging at dusk and less often at dawn or on moonlit nights. They are most vocal at twilight, especially at the start of the breeding season. Hunts from the ground in clearings or open areas, and around water holes, making short sallies to catch insects on the wing, before usually returning to the same spot. They sometimes also hunt by sustained search in flight. Regularly hunts under artificial light at water holes and around farm yards. Hawks insects aerially, and feeds mainly on beetles, moths, Antlions, Lacewings, grasshoppers, Bugs and Termites.

Drinks on the wing, dipping down while skimming over water in the manner of a swallow or swift.

The Rufous-cheeked Nightjar is a monogamous, solitary nester and is probably territorial.

No true nest is constructed, the nest site is merely a shallow, natural depression in coarse soil, often on stony ground or in recently burnt areas. In more wooded parts of their range they will often nest in leaf litter under trees or bushes. Nest sites are frequently found in the vicinity of the previous years nest.

Males call frequently at night before the eggs are laid but become virtually silent once incubation begins. An incubating bird reacts to intruders by flattening the body and narrowing the eyelids to slits. They only flush once an intruder is within 3 meters of the nest. They may also perform a broken-wing injury display when flushed off nestlings.

Breeding is recorded from September to January, and as late as March in the Karoo. Peak egg-laying is from September to November but varies slightly by region. Clutches usually consist of 2 eggs (rarely just 1), laid at 2 day intervals. The eggs are glossy and usually pinkish-cream with pale, evenly spaced, reddish-brown and lilac markings. Interestingly, the second egg is larger and heavier than first.

Incubation begins once the first egg has been laid and lasts for a period of 15 to 17 days. Incubation duties are shared by both sexes, the female incubates during the day and the male at night.

The young chicks are very well camouflaged against the stony background surrounding the nest. The nestling period lasts for 18 to 20 days.

Further Resources

Species text in the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Cameron Meyer, Dewald du Plessis, Geoff Goetsch, Jon Blanco, Jorrie Jordaan, Karis Daniel, Keir Lynch, Kyle Finn, Lance Robinson and Phillip Nieuwoudt is acknowledged.

Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).

Other common names: Rooiwangnaguil (Afrikaans); Mahulwana, Ribyatsane (Tswana); Engoulevent à joues rousses (French); Roodwangnachtzwaluw (Dutch); Rostwangen-Nachtschwalbe (German); Noitibó-de-faces-ruivas (Portuguese).

List of bird species in this format is available here.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2024. Rufous-cheeked Nightjar Caprimulgus rufigena. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2024/10/14/rufous-cheeked-nightjar-caprimulgus-rufigena/

Bird identification, birding