Whilst birding the Abu Arish area last summer Phil Roberts and I spent some time after dark looking for owls and nightjars. We heard a single calling Nubian Nightjar but could not locate it so went driving around the nearby tracks. Here we managed to see good numbers of Plain Nightjar with more than twenty birds seen catching insects and alighting on the dusty tracks. The Plain Nightjar is a scarce breeding summer visitor to the southwest where it occurs in Saudi Arabia from the Yemen boarder northwards to Taif. Where ideal conditions occur in can be locally common with several birds seen close together, such as the ones we saw near Abu Arish. They occur from 500 – 2500 metres and favour dry rocky hillsides and hilltops that have only scatter acacia trees. The bottom photo is a Nubian Nightjar taken at the same site showing the plumage and colouration differences between this species and Plain Nightjar
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| Nubian Nightjar |