- Also called:
- nightjars
- Related Topics:
- Frogmouth
- Caprimulgidae
- Caprimulgi
- Podargus
- Batrachostomus
Caprimulgiform
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What is the Caprimulgiform order of birds?
The Caprimulgiformes are an order of approximately 120 species of soft-plumaged birds. Nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet-frogmouths are the major groups within this order, which also includes the unusual oilbird of South America.
These sparrow- to raven-sized birds (14–55 cm) are typically twilight- or night-flying insectivores with enormous gapes, patterned plumage, short legs, and long wings. Their calls are often startling, strange, or beautiful, contributing to an aura of mystery. Though they share similarities with owls, caprimulgiforms have non-raptorial bills and feet, flatter heads with laterally placed eyes, relatively shorter tarsi, and longer tails.
True nightjars (Caprimulgidae) are found worldwide, while other families have a more limited distribution. The order is absent from New Zealand and some oceanic islands.
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What kinds of birds are included in the Caprimulgiform order?
The Caprimulgiformes order includes soft-plumaged birds such as nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet-frogmouths. The oilbird of South America is also a member of this order.
Caprimulgiform birds are typically sparrow- to raven-sized, ranging from 14 to 55 cm (about 5.5 to 22 inches). Most members of this order are twilight- or night-flying birds.
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Where do Caprimulgiform birds usually live?
Caprimulgiform birds, encompassing nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet-frogmouths, are found almost worldwide, excluding New Zealand and certain oceanic islands. True nightjars inhabit temperate to tropical regions. The families of caprimulgiforms, excluding true nightjars, have more restricted habitats.
These birds are well-distributed across the globe, with each family having unique characteristics in both habits and form. They are absent from New Zealand, the northernmost parts of Eurasia and America, the southernmost parts of South America, and some oceanic islands. Some species migrate according to the wet and dry seasons in tropical regions.
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What do Caprimulgiform birds eat?
Caprimulgiform birds, excluding oilbirds, are primarily insectivorous, though larger species can be carnivorous on occasion. Many nightjars and nighthawks continuously hawk for insects mid-flight, while others make short sallies from perches like flycatchers.
Potoos eat similar insects as nightjars, while frogmouths prefer terrestrial prey, such as large, crawling arthropods, snails, frogs, mice, small birds, and sometimes fruit, captured in short sallies from elevated perches.
Oilbirds are unique as nocturnal, exclusively frugivorous birds, eating fruits rich in protein and oily fats from palm, laurel, and bursera trees. They locate fruit-bearing trees using their olfactory sense and sight, plucking fruits while hovering or clinging briefly to large bunches.
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How are Caprimulgiform birds adapted to life at night?
Caprimulgiform birds, including nightjars, are well-adapted to life at night. Most are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk, or nocturnal, especially when there is moonlight.
These birds have enormous gapes (wide mouths) for catching insects on the wing, and large eyes for better vision in low light conditions. Their plumage is soft and cryptically colored in browns and grays, providing excellent camouflage during daytime rest. The oilbird is equipped for complete darkness with a system of echolocation.
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What are some unique features or behaviors of Caprimulgiform birds?
Caprimulgiform birds, encompassing nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths and owlet-frogmouths, exhibit unique features and behaviors. Most are twilight- or night-flying birds with soft plumage and cryptic coloring. They have relatively weak feet and short tarsi, but possess enormous gapes for catching insects on the wing.
Key characteristics defining them include plumage type, foot and leg structure, bill form, palatal structure, and arrangement of pelvic muscles and flexor tendons. While aerial feeders, true nightjars often roost on the ground, while frogmouths, potoos, and owlet-frogmouths are arboreal. Some nightjars can enter periods of torpidity to cope with food shortages, and the poorwill is known to hibernate during winter.
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Caprimulgiform, (order Caprimulgiformes), any of about 120 species of soft-plumaged birds, the major groups of which are called nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet-frogmouths. The order also includes the aberrant oilbird of South America. Most are twilight- or night-flying birds. Many produce sounds that are startling, strange, or weirdly beautiful. The calls of caprimulgiforms are surrounded by an aura of mystery richly endowed to elicit interest and sometimes fear from humans. The name of the type genus Caprimulgus, goatsucker, derives from an ancient belief that the birds seen flitting about the goats at dusk were taking milk from the goats’ udders, a misconception no doubt fortified by the birds’ uncommonly large mouths. In actuality, caprimulgiforms prey on the insects disturbed or attracted by the goats. There is now a tendency to replace the name goatsucker with the more appropriate term nightjar, derived from the birds’ voices.
The caprimulgiform birds are sparrow- to raven-sized birds (14–55 cm [about 5.5–22 inches]) with enormous gapes. They are cryptically coloured and have a patterned plumage, short legs, and (for the most part) long wings.
All caprimulgiform birds are rather similar in general appearance, but each family has certain peculiar characteristics both in form and in habits. Caprimulgiforms resemble owls in many ways; however, there are numerous differences, mostly internal, between the two groups. Externally, caprimulgiforms possess bills and feet that are not raptorial, a flatter head with eyes placed laterally rather than in a frontal facial disk, relatively shorter tarsi, and longer tails. A closer inspection of caprimulgiforms and owls reveals a dissimilarity in the number of primary feathers in the wing and, usually, of secondaries and tail feathers.
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Although the true nightjars (Caprimulgidae) are amply distributed throughout the world, the other families are more restricted. The order is absent from New Zealand and some oceanic islands.
Natural history
The caprimulgiform birds are primarily crepuscular, their activity being largely limited to the periods of dawn and dusk, although they are also nocturnal when there is sufficient illumination, especially by moonlight. Some species may become active on dark, cloudy days, and a few are somewhat diurnal. Oilbirds possess a system of echolocation that permits them to fly freely in total darkness, an adaptation related to their roosting and nesting in caves, and are thus implicitly well equipped for nocturnal life. They leave their caves at dusk and return at dawn and are highly gregarious in their foraging behaviour as well as in roosting and nesting. The other members of the order are more or less solitary. Some nightjars that are migratory behave gregariously during migration and to some extent while in their wintering regions.
Although aerial feeders, most of the true nightjars roost on the ground, rocks, or fallen trunks, but some prefer horizontal branches of trees, in which case they usually perch lengthwise along the branch. Some ground roosters, however, will seek higher perches as singing or foraging posts; these are often slender branches or vines and the birds sit on them crosswise. Some species may even roost so perched. Unlike the nightjars, the frogmouths, potoos, and owlet-frogmouths are arboreal (tree-dwelling). The last normally sit crosswise on a branch and fairly upright, both when active and at rest, resembling small, long-tailed owls. Potoos and frogmouths frequently sit crosswise and upright when actively foraging and also appear very owl-like, although at rest they may perch quite differently. The potoos are noted for a peculiar stance, perching usually at the top of a stump, broken branch, or at a knob on an upwardly inclined limb. When alarmed in daylight they slowly flatten their plumage and stretch their bills upward in a stiff posture with the eyes nearly closed and the bill slightly open. Frogmouths adopt a similar broken-branch alarm posture.
During the day the oilbird perches horizontally on ledges inside caves, usually on its nest. Ledges are limited and mostly occupied by nests. On its forays outside the oilbird has been observed to perch on the bare parts of tree branches. Its mien is rather hawklike, but its crouching stance, unique in some ways, is more like that of a nightjar.
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Habitat
The caprimulgiform birds exploit ample food sources that are almost uniquely theirs. There are no other primarily frugivorous nocturnal birds to compete with the oilbird, its distribution being limited by the availability of suitable caves in regions providing the proper fruit for food.
The nightjars, by far the largest and most successful group, have no effective avian competitors for the great numbers of night-flying insects except among themselves. Different nightjars have come to occupy almost all habitats, from semidesert to very humid regions and from sea level to 4,000 metres (about 13,100 feet) in altitude. They have a further advantage by preferring the more open areas: savannas, grasslands, and forest clearings. When nightjars are woodland dwellers, they live in the more open forests or brushwood growths; many use the woodlands only for diurnal concealment or nesting, doing most of their feeding at the edge or in clearings.
Competition between the nightjars and potoos is reduced because the latter hunt mostly from higher perches in open country or exploit the space above the great forests, a vast niche occupied by practically no other nocturnal bird.
Frogmouths and owlet-frogmouths inhabit forested savannas, forest edge, second growth, and the more open forests. Thus, their chief competitors are the insectivorous owls. As with the nightjars, differences in food preferences and methods of hunting minimize this competition. The hole-nesting owlet-frogmouths, however, have to contend not only with owls but also many diurnal species for suitable nesting sites, and this may explain why they are apparently the least successful family in the order, as suggested by their limited distribution and paucity of numbers.