Confirmed breeding of Golden Nightjar in Western Sahara

16/04/2019

Back in May 2015 a Golden Nightjar was hit by a car and killed along the now-famous road between Dakhla and Aousserd, then representing the first record of this species in Western Sahara. It showed indications of being a breeding bird, thus the idea sparked that there may be a remote and small population in Western Sahara. Whether the bird was a regular or just a phenomenon induced by favorable weather or feeding conditions was unknown at the time. The discovery of this truly stunning nightjar obviously excited birders, for it suddenly seemed possible to connect with this species while picking up other local goodies, such as Cricket Warbler and African Dunn's Lark.

Then, for three years running from 2016-18, Golden Nightjar was found at Oued Jenna, a wadi interspersed with some high-standing trees some 20 km north-west of Aousserd. The species was both heard and seen here by a number of visiting birders, making it a real possibility to connect with in Western Sahara. However, the status of the species remained unclear: while there were indications of breeding, it couldn't be proven as eggs or juveniles were never observed. In the meantime, the first confirmed breeding record of Golden Nightjar for the Western Palearctic came in April 2018, when a nest with a single egg was found in northern Mauritania.

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First confirmed breeding of Golden Nightjar in the Western Palearctic

10/08/2018

Golden Nightjar was recorded for the first time in the Western Palearctic (WP) region as recently as May 2015, when a male was unfortunately hit by a car and killed along the road to Aoussard, Western Sahara.

At first it was assumed that this might be a vagrant, although in March 2016 an unusual, repetitive call was heard at night by German birders at Oued Jenna, along the Aoussard road, not far from where the 2015 record had been made. It was initially thought possibly to be a Red-necked Nightjar, but this was subsequently dispelled on their return home, the call clearly identified as belonging to Golden Nightjar. Just days later, BiOME researchers found three territorial male Golden Nightjars in the same area.

It has subsequently become established that the species is evidently regular, if not resident in the right habitat in Western Sahara, with multiple birds observed between February and May each year, and at multiple sites some distance from each other. Furthermore, in April 2016, Eric Didner visited northern Mauritania and found at least one male in the large wadi north-east of Ouadâne, just north of the 21°N line that defines the southern boundary of the WP (as defined by The Birds of the Western Palearctic), with birds observed again there in April 2017.

Although the continued presence of the species at multiple sites across Western Sahara and northern Mauritania strongly suggests that it is breeding, reproduction had not been confirmed until this spring, when a team of five birders, including myself, chanced upon a nest just a few hundred metres north of the 21°N border near Ouadâne, Mauritania.

At dusk on 18 April, during a concerted effort to locate Golden Nightjars, Dan Pointon picked up a male giving snippets of song around 200 m to the south of our camp. With the five members of the team widely scattered in the wadi, it took the best part of 30 minutes for us all to reconvene at the spot. Although the bird didn't sing again, scanning with torches eventually picked up eyeshine and we went on to enjoy crippling views of the nightjar actively hunting crickets to within 10 m of where we were stood. Curiously, it would sit on the floor, scanning for food items, before jumping and fluttering up to a metre or more in the air to catch its prey.

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