As discussed in lots of different posts in this weblog, the avifauna of Trinidad & Tobago is composed of a number of species and circle of relatives teams going on very apparently, in threes. I hadn’t spotted this till I started compiling my very own ebook at the birds of T&T some years in the past, and I believed it quite uncanny. The final time I spoke about this was once over a yr in the past, and in case you’re doubting the superiority of this, check out this record:
Bitterns | Trogons | Antshrikes | Spinetails | Manakins | Hermits | Honeycreepers | Warblers | Myiarchus
Over the previous few days we’ve got been taking part in day-to-day – or will have to I say nightly – sightings of Quick-tailed Nighthawk. A couple has been roosting with regards to the place we’re recently residing, and every night time those cryptic birds take to the wing looking for flying bugs. I’ve been not able to discover a day roost regardless of my easiest efforts. Photographing those nocturnal rockets has confirmed to be rather the problem, I don’t suppose I’ve ever furiously deleted such a lot of pictures in my lifestyles.
Quick-tailed Nighthawk (above and underneath)
General, this species appears to be poorly identified, which is comprehensible given its conduct. Usually, they look ahead to the solar to be with ease underneath the horizon prior to rousing in any method. They have got now not been seen to name from the roost; a unmarried chicken silently takes to the wing, losing nearly vertically out of its roost tree. It then flies round for a couple of mins till it’s joined by means of the second one chicken; that is when the vocalizations start. Over the process typically the following twenty mins (or then again lengthy it takes for darkness to tightly grip the scene) the pair chases bugs and every different, all of the whilst making various chirps and buzzes.
Photographing the Quick-tailed Nighthawks concerned workout routines at first in monitoring their speedy, erratic and extremely bat-like flight, and secondly in processing the remainder pictures as soon as 99.99% had been deleted.
One night time whilst taking a look on the nighthawks, I famous the presence of a 3rd chicken. In a similar way sized and proportioned to the nighthawks, this one determined to perch on an uncovered snag. Incredible, I believed – was once this my likelihood to in spite of everything land a good photograph of this species? To my bare eyes within the darkness its cream throat appeared somewhat off for a nighthawk, however possibly it was once a juvenile? After I regarded thru right kind glass then again, all doubt was once blown to smithereens – it was once a Bat Falcon.
When this Bat Falcon departed this perch, it made the Quick-tailed Nighthawks look like they had been operating on low-octane gas.
All of this to mention that in spite of everything I’ve documented all 3 species of nighthawk present in T&T. Smartly, more or less. A pair years in the past some birders photographed a atypical taking a look nighthawk that was once inside a small flock of Lesser Nighthawks; this chicken is but to be recognized however is both Antillean or Not unusual Nighthawk. For my egocentric functions of amassing threes, I’m now not together with this thriller right here.
The primary Lesser Nighthawks I noticed had been from a mall carpark; the birds would collect in nice quantity to ceremonial dinner at the many bugs attracted by means of the nauseating (to me) floodlights. I attempted photographing them at the moment; the consequences had been embarrassing.
A few years later, I heard of every other team of Lesser Nighthawks that had converged on a close-by wetland. After a failed try to discover a day roost, I attempted every other morning with a unique technique. Arriving within the darkness of the pre-dawn, I merely waited for the birds to go back to their roost. I want lifestyles was once all the time this straightforward.
Lesser Nighthawk
Rounding off the 3 is the most important of the bunch, the mighty Nacunda Nighthawk. This was once if truth be told the primary nighthawk I noticed correctly, a few years in the past at daybreak. Over the process the following decade, they’ve been rather common guests to a wetland within the south of Trinidad and are probably the most more uncomplicated nocturnal species to watch throughout the suitable time of yr.
Nacunda Nighthawk
It should be famous that no calls or different lures had been used to {photograph} any of those birds, and that dozing birds had been left in position to leisure for so long as they desired.