Red necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis)

[Juan Aragonés]

This one is for sure my favourite bird species, mostly due to the fact that I have a very strong personal link with it since I was an eight years old child. The behaviour of this bird was the subject of my PhD in biology and my years as a scintific researcher. I have tons of color slides on this species but just a bunch of digital images. After about two years without too much time to go to the field and search for nesting pairs this year I decided to look for some nightjars and this one is the first of the year (one of the two eggs on this nest is visible bteween the stones near the middle point of the wing). Not the best light but here is my first decent digital image of my loved "zumaya" (the local name of the species). :):)

Nikon D2X AFS Nikkor 200-400VR f8, 1/250s ISO200 VR on hh

[Alfred Forns]

Took me a while to find the bird Juan !!!! Amazing camouflage !!! Can't imagine the difficulty in finding !!!!

[Raul Quinones]

Cool shot Juan, it resembles a little bit the Antillean Nighthawk (Chordeiles gundlachii) from my homeland.
Last year I stumble (literally, no idea) onto a nest area, an abandoned landing strip. I was surprised, how aggressive this small birds turn out to be protecting the area, needles to say that I squeeze a couple bad shots and got out of the place, neither wanted to disturb the birds or get hurt.

Saludos,
Raul

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

This is an awesome capture and to see how well nature has protected them. I do hope you will have opportunities for more images and I will be waiting for your posts < smile > Love images like this Juan.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Talk about camouflage! Don't know how you managed to find this!

I like the green blades of grass among all those warm colours. Very nice. :-)