I use the word ‘Nightjar’ in the title of
this article for what readers in the Americas may know as a ‘Nighthawk’, I believe. I once worked with a Canadian Biologist on the conservation
of Mauritian endangered bird species and he used ‘Nighthawk’. Also, if you look
at bird field guides published in America you will see that nightjars are
called nighthawks in those.
It is very difficult to get any experience as
a naturalist with nightjars. When I say ‘experience’ I mean to see them or
handle them, whatever your capacity is (naturalist, zoo worker, ornithologist,
rehabilitator, veterinarian, biologist). They may be very common where you
live, but very elusive. This is because they are camouflaged, nocturnal, and
usually found only in the countryside. When I lived in my native Wales, I was a
keen participant in almost every naturalist’s group going – and there were a
lot. Spider study groups, Goshawk study groups, Badger groups, Bat groups. The
Forestry Authority began one to monitor Nightjar populations in a place near to
my parents’ house called Clocaenog Forest. This started off when I was at an
age where I was ready to move on and see the World a bit, and so I never got
round to participating.
But this week at my university the Brazilian
Environmental Police pulled their grey Government-issue pick-up truck into the
car park (parking lot in American English) and announced they were dropping off
an owl. At the time, my final-year
Veterinary Medicine students and I were nearby. We were treating a Brazilian Short-eared
Dog. This is for a future article (maybe tomorrow). I overheard the police saying the new patient
was an owl. The resident went to attend. I wandered over, too. The police and
the resident were discussing owls. I said what it was, in English, to the
resident (almost nobody speaks English around here – he does, though). But I could not remember the word in
Portuguese.
At home later in the day I looked the bird
up. This being the tropics, there are several species of Nightjar, and common
Portuguese-language names vary, but you can at least arrive at a consensus
because most field guides do publish such names. I concluded that what we had
in our care was a female João-Corta-Pão/Rufous Nightjar/Caprimulgus rufus with another veterinarian suggesting Curiango or
Pauraque. I used the Collins Illustrated
Checklist of Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica by Pena and
Rumboll, and from their description I concluded it was a female, going by tail
colouration. This one was found in a square in the city centre, apparently attacked
by a cat. Over the next few days I
marvelled at the length of its neck and the disproportionately massive gape. I salvaged
American Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana)
from the stall of the Small-eared Dog, and placed these directly in the gape of
the Nightjar when it opened its mouth in what I presume is a defensive mechanism. My hope is that it survives this approach of
feeding whatever insect substitute foods can be found for it on an ad-hoc basis.
I believe it feeds on moths in the wild.
It is a fascinating animal, and, who knows,
if it survives the next few days then these notes on its treatment may be
useful for other people in similar circumstances. One important note: to end, I
want to share with you that on the IUCN’s Red List this species is considered
to be of Least Concern but decreasing.
No comments:
Post a Comment