For the past 22 years, audio recordings of male songs in the Forest have been systematically studied, following up Margaret Rebbeck’s 1999 paper that suggested male Nightjar are individually distinct in the pulse rates and phrase lengths of their churring. The components of Nightjar song are described here and analysis of a sample looks at … Read more
In 2022, we came across a recording of a bird that sang for 18 minutes, 34 seconds continuously and suggested that this would be hard to beat. Turns out we were wrong about that; this year one of the AudioMoth recordings from site U showed a continuous burst of song that was an astonishing 34 … Read more
On May 25th we visited Site K, where there were reports of 2 males. At around 21:20 one of these birds started churring, some 100 metres away from us. About a minute later, a second male started up, much closer to our position. In the field, we immediately noticed an unusual effect in the second … Read more
We’ve been reviewing the data gathered by the first deployment of the AudioMoth recorders this season and came across this recording from site AO. Figure 1 shows the pattern of singing between 0300 and 0430 BST, which is the dawn window in which the devices have been configured to record. The longest gap between bouts … Read more
Some stereo recordings of Nightjars singing at dawn. This is one of the best ways to enjoy Nightjars, by going out to watch and listen between 3 and 4:30 AM in late May or early June. Initially, Nightjars are heard with Woodcock and Tawny Owls, but as it gets light, the dawn chorus starts and … Read more
AudioMoth recording of nest relief. Not edited for length, so that the actual duration of events is shown, hence gap between vocalisations. After hearing the male flight call (0:02), the female churrs to the male from the nest (0:03) and gets two calls in response (0:09 – 0:11). Nothing is then heard until 1:30, when … Read more
Various sounds we’ve heard in the field, and in particular a recording we made at a nest, have had me searching through the literature to find a reference giving some context. Because it is sometimes difficult to be sure about which vocalisation is being described, I made a table cross referencing some of the primary … Read more