Long-Tailed Nightjar

The Long-Tailed Nightjar, or Caprimulgus climacurus, is one of the easiest nightjars to identify in Uganda. The tail of the spectacular male can vary between 15 and 33 centimeters in length. Even the female has a long enough tail to distinguish it from other similar nightjars with white sides to the tail, such as the Square-Tailed and Slender-Tailed Nightjars. The Long-Tailed Nightjar is divided into three subspecies, two of which range widely across equatorial West Africa, and the other restricted to the more arid regions of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Driving the access road to the viewpoint above Murchison Falls after dark, where the habitat is bushed grassland and woodland, I inevitably find a few Long-Tailed Nightjars resting in the road. The female, pictured in the second photograph, has buff-colored wing spots and outer tail feathers instead of white.