In The Beginning…

North Yorkshire Moors Moorland Organisation

Check out this series of photos of 2 nightjar chicks from hatching through to ringing with a BTO ringer on one of our managed estates on the North York Moors.

Nightjars are on the Amber list for conservation meaning that they are the next most threatened group behind Red population wise. They arrive back in the UK between late April to mid-May and they are best looked and listened for at dusk on warm, still, summer evenings. They will then generally leave again in August.

Nightjars are nocturnal birds and can be seen hawking for food at dusk and dawn. With pointed wings and a long tails their shape is similar to a kestrel or cuckoo and their cryptic, grey-brown, mottled, streaked and barred plumage provides ideal camouflage in the daytime. They have an almost supernatural reputation with their silent flight and their mythical ability to steal milk from goats. The first indication that a nightjar is near is usually the male's churring song, rising and falling with a ventriloquial quality.