Whilst
birding in Taif for the weekend of 3-4 July 2015, Phil and I were sitting in
the car eating Iftar when a Nightjar flew across in front of the car and appear
to land on some stony ground nearby. We did not want to disturb the bird so
waited for it to get completely dark and went looking for the bird by torchlight
to see if we could see its eye shine. Unfortunately we could not locate the
bird so decided to try a short blast of Plain Nightjar call. Immediately two
birds responded and flew around our heads for a minute or so giving amazing
views in the torchlight indicating they were Plain Nightjars and this combined
with plumage details confirmed the identification. They then flew off and
landed out of sight. There was no possibility of photographing the birds as
despite an hour or searching we could not see the birds on the ground although
did see them on three more occasions in flight. The photograph below was taken in Saudi Arabia by Ali Al Qarni who has kindly allowed me to use it on my website. This is an under recorded
species in Saudi Arabia, and an addition to my Saudi Arabian list and is probably
a breeding summer visitor to the southwest from Taif south to the Yemen border.
The Plain Nightjar occurs from southern Mauritania and northern Senegal east to
Eritrea, northwest Somalia and northwest Kenya, and southwest Saudi Arabia
south into Yemen. They Winter from Senegal and Liberia across to southwest
South Sudan and possibly southwest Ethiopia and Tanzania. The male has white
spot on four outermost primaries and broad white tips to two outermost tail
feathers whilst the female has tawny wing spots and lacks white in tail. Their
preferred habitat is mainly barren lowlands inland of Asir Mountains, but also
rocky terrain at higher altitudes where they have been recorded from sea-level
to 1800 metres.
