European Nightjar

The Eurasian (European) Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus breeds across the Western Palearctic, from Britain and Iberia east through Europe and central Asia to Lake Baikal, and south into northwest Africa. Six subspecies are recognised, and birds get paler and smaller further east: the nominate C. e. europaeus is large and dark, while eastern populations, including unwini (Iraq and Iran east to the Tien Shan and northern Pakistan), are paler, greyer and less vermiculated. It’s this eastern population that funnels through the Gulf en route to and from Africa — exactly why Kuwait sits on such a productive stretch of the route. If you’d like to see Nightjar and Kuwait’s other migrants in the field, take a look at my guided birdwatching tours.

Beyond being a thrill to find at roost, Nightjars do real ecological work after dark, hunting moths, beetles and other night-flying insects and helping keep pest numbers in check over farmland, scrub and desert edge. In turn, they and their eggs feed a range of nocturnal predators. Like many insectivorous migrants, they’re now feeling the squeeze from insect decline linked to pesticide use, habitat loss, and — being active only in low light — artificial lighting and road mortality.

Nightjars are exceptional long-distance migrants: all populations winter in sub-Saharan Africa, many reaching east and southern Africa. Passage through the Gulf is biphasal. In Kuwait, spring passage runs 10 April–mid-May, peaking in the last three weeks of April. Autumn passage is more protracted, running late August into November, and is the stronger of the two movements — the busiest ten days of the year fall in mid-to-late September, well ahead of the tail-off into October and beyond. Subspecific identity on passage remains unresolved, with pale sandy-grey birds likely to be unwini or sarudnyi.

Autumn’s long passage rewards repeat visits, but spring offers the most reliable window to catch Nightjar on the move, with peak numbers in the second half of April — a highlight of the Spring Tour. If you’d like to experience Nightjar passage and Kuwait’s other migrants for yourself, take a look at the full range of guided birdwatching tours on offer.