Table Of ContentPhotospot: Star-spotted Nightjar
Michael Mills and Claire Spottisuvode
Star-sp<medNightjarCaprimulgusstellatushasbeen Importantly, female Plain Nightjar lackswhite in the
known toscience forlittleovera century, since tailandwings,whilethemalehasbroaderwhitetips
beingdiscoveredatthe KassimRiver*,easternEthiopia, tothe twooutermost tail feathers. Only in the hand,
in January 1899'. It has subsequently remained a when wing and tail patterns can be examined, can
relativelyobscurespecies,observedonlyoccasionally these species be separatedwithcertainty.
andphotographedmorerarelystill.Consequently,its This individual, believed to be an adult female,
breeding biology is unknown* and status within its \\ascaughton28November1999inNechisarNational
localised range poorly known. Zimmerman et ar Park. Ethiopia. It was located shortly after sunset in
describe it as locally common in n Kenya on lava marginalhabitatonthewesternborderoftheNechisar
rock-strewndesertswithscatteredareasofbaresandy plains, betweengrasslandanddry openbush.
soil , while Salford etal report that .CaprimuIgus
stcllntnswasprobablyalsocommon ontheNechisar Acknowledgements
plains,whereitspresencewasconfirmedbytworoad WethankRogerSaffordandNigelCleerefortheirhelp
kills(R Safford perscomm). inidentifyingthisbird,andGusMills.DuanBiggsand
Thespeciesowesmuchofitsenigmaticreputation PeterOslx>me forhelpingtocatch it. f,
toitslocaliseddistribution,whichislargelyrestricted
torelatively remoteareasofnorthern East Africa. Its References
strongholdsliein northandnorth-west Kenya(north 1. Blundell. M W and Lovat, L 1899. New species of
of01°1S’N and between 34°55’E and 38°00’E)V’and birdsfroms<>uthem \byssinia.Bull.Br. ()mithol.Cl.
central Ethiopia(intheAwashvalley'). It isrecorded 10: |9-JV
more sporadically in Djibouti, north-west Somalia, 2 Gleere. \ andNurney, I). 1998.Nightjars:AGuideto
south-east Sudan, and at Artu and Nechisar National Sightjarsandrelatedmgluhirds. R<)bertsbridge:Pica
Press.
Park in Ethiopia** Star-spotted Nightjar favoursdry
habitats at low altitudes (possibly up to 1.980m) 5 SF.a<rnswWoertbhb, S.RJ., aCnodombWietrh,erRi.cFk.,, JMo.nes2,00P0.., MRaedcgeen,t
including stony semi-desert, black lava fields, dwarf observations of some bird species previously
bushIdgernatisfsilcaantdioanndisdmrya,doepeesnpebcuisahlllaynd-di’f.ficult by an c7:on3s4i-d4e6r.eduncommonorrareinEthic>pia.Bull..\BC
overlap in distribution with the almost i. Fry, G II.. Keith, S. and Urban, E.K. (eds) 1988. The
indistinguishable, and possibly more variable. Plain Birds"/ \fri(a Vol3. L<>nd<>n, IIK: AcademicPress.
Nightjar CaprimuIgus inonuitus. Both these plainly 3 Lewis \ 1984. Notesontherangesofthreespecies
markedspeciesaresmall-tomedium-sized,andhave in northern and eastern Kenya. Scopus8: 27-28.
proportionately large heads. Zimmerman etal', the 6 Safford, R.J., Duckworth, J.W., Evans, Ml., Telfer,
only field guide to illustrate and comprehensively MG .Timmins,R.J.andZewdie,(1. 1993-Thebirdsof
describe the two, states that Star-spotted Nightjar is Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia. Scopus 16: 61-80.
SimilartoPlain Nightjarbut still plainer, and readily 7. Zimmerman, I).A., Turner, D.A. and Pearson, D.J.
1996.BirdsofKenyaandnorthernTanzania.London,
distinguishedfromitbyprominentwhitethroatpatch UK: A. & C. Black.
(usuallydividedbyadarkmidline)andsmallerwhite
tailcomers’.Inthecaseoftheindividualphotographed, c o Percy Pitzpatrick Institute ofAfrican Ornithology,
the whitethroat markingswerealmost unnoticeable I nilvrsityqfCapeTown,Rondehosch, 7701,SouthAfrica,
even in the hand, and only became apparent by li-mail:[email protected]@birding-
closely examining the parted throat feathers. africa.com
Photospot BullABC Vol7No2-141
Figure 1. Star-spotted Nightjar Caprimulgusstellatus, .1 little-known inhabitant <>l low-altitudedesertsandaridbushof
northern Kenya and central Ethiopia. Thisfemalewas photographedadjacent tothe NechLsarplains, southern Ethiopia in
November 1999 (Claire Spottiswoode & Michael Mills)
Figure 2. Diagnostic flight-feather pattern offemale Star-spotted NightjarCaprimulgusstellatus. Note the smudge ofwhite
coveringjustthe tip ofthe outermosttail feathers andthe narrowwhiteblotchestothe fouroutermost primaries (Claire
Spottiswoode & Michael Mills)
142-BullABC Vol7No2 Photospot
>
ilarto the partially sympatru and almost indistinguishable Plain
Nightpr ( inoniatus Itnth .ire mu.ill ti' medium M/ed i< » pl.unly marked .ind hau* proportionately large heads.
while<>n thethn>at, despite this beingwidely citedasa useful field character
•Claire Soottiswoodc K Michael Mills
Figure 5 Nechisarplains, southern Ethiopian Rift Valley;
generally plainer than Plain Nightjit <aprimulgus inomatus habitat of fournightjarspe<ies includingthe little-known
andhastiny m thein>wnand s<apulars Nethisat Captimulgussolala (described on the basis ofa
singlewingfrom a road-kill) and Starspotted C. stellatus
(Claire Spottiswoode)
Photospot BullABC Vo!7No2-143
