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Photospot: Star-spotted Nightjar Michael Mills and Claire Spottisuvode Star-sp<medNightjarCaprimulgusstellatushasbeen Importantly, female Plain Nightjar lackswhite in the known toscience forlittleovera century, since tailandwings,whilethemalehasbroaderwhitetips beingdiscoveredatthe KassimRiver*,easternEthiopia, tothe twooutermost tail feathers. Only in the hand, in January 1899'. It has subsequently remained a when wing and tail patterns can be examined, can relativelyobscurespecies,observedonlyoccasionally these species be separatedwithcertainty. andphotographedmorerarelystill.Consequently,its This individual, believed to be an adult female, breeding biology is unknown* and status within its \\ascaughton28November1999inNechisarNational localised range poorly known. Zimmerman et ar Park. Ethiopia. It was located shortly after sunset in describe it as locally common in n Kenya on lava marginalhabitatonthewesternborderoftheNechisar rock-strewndesertswithscatteredareasofbaresandy plains, betweengrasslandanddry openbush. soil , while Salford etal report that .CaprimuIgus stcllntnswasprobablyalsocommon ontheNechisar Acknowledgements plains,whereitspresencewasconfirmedbytworoad WethankRogerSaffordandNigelCleerefortheirhelp kills(R Safford perscomm). inidentifyingthisbird,andGusMills.DuanBiggsand Thespeciesowesmuchofitsenigmaticreputation PeterOslx>me forhelpingtocatch it. f, toitslocaliseddistribution,whichislargelyrestricted torelatively remoteareasofnorthern East Africa. Its References strongholdsliein northandnorth-west Kenya(north 1. Blundell. M W and Lovat, L 1899. New species of of01°1S’N and between 34°55’E and 38°00’E)V’and birdsfroms<>uthem \byssinia.Bull.Br. ()mithol.Cl. central Ethiopia(intheAwashvalley'). It isrecorded 10: |9-JV more sporadically in Djibouti, north-west Somalia, 2 Gleere. \ andNurney, I). 1998.Nightjars:AGuideto south-east Sudan, and at Artu and Nechisar National Sightjarsandrelatedmgluhirds. R<)bertsbridge:Pica Press. Park in Ethiopia** Star-spotted Nightjar favoursdry habitats at low altitudes (possibly up to 1.980m) 5 SF.a<rnswWoertbhb, S.RJ., aCnodombWietrh,erRi.cFk.,, JMo.nes2,00P0.., MRaedcgeen,t including stony semi-desert, black lava fields, dwarf observations of some bird species previously bushIdgernatisfsilcaantdioanndisdmrya,doepeesnpebcuisahlllaynd-di’f.ficult by an c7:on3s4i-d4e6r.eduncommonorrareinEthic>pia.Bull..\BC overlap in distribution with the almost i. Fry, G II.. Keith, S. and Urban, E.K. (eds) 1988. The indistinguishable, and possibly more variable. Plain Birds"/ \fri(a Vol3. L<>nd<>n, IIK: AcademicPress. Nightjar CaprimuIgus inonuitus. Both these plainly 3 Lewis \ 1984. Notesontherangesofthreespecies markedspeciesaresmall-tomedium-sized,andhave in northern and eastern Kenya. Scopus8: 27-28. proportionately large heads. Zimmerman etal', the 6 Safford, R.J., Duckworth, J.W., Evans, Ml., Telfer, only field guide to illustrate and comprehensively MG .Timmins,R.J.andZewdie,(1. 1993-Thebirdsof describe the two, states that Star-spotted Nightjar is Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia. Scopus 16: 61-80. SimilartoPlain Nightjarbut still plainer, and readily 7. Zimmerman, I).A., Turner, D.A. and Pearson, D.J. 1996.BirdsofKenyaandnorthernTanzania.London, distinguishedfromitbyprominentwhitethroatpatch UK: A. & C. Black. (usuallydividedbyadarkmidline)andsmallerwhite tailcomers’.Inthecaseoftheindividualphotographed, c o Percy Pitzpatrick Institute ofAfrican Ornithology, the whitethroat markingswerealmost unnoticeable I nilvrsityqfCapeTown,Rondehosch, 7701,SouthAfrica, even in the hand, and only became apparent by li-mail:[email protected]@birding- closely examining the parted throat feathers. africa.com Photospot BullABC Vol7No2-141 Figure 1. Star-spotted Nightjar Caprimulgusstellatus, .1 little-known inhabitant <>l low-altitudedesertsandaridbushof northern Kenya and central Ethiopia. Thisfemalewas photographedadjacent tothe NechLsarplains, southern Ethiopia in November 1999 (Claire Spottiswoode & Michael Mills) Figure 2. Diagnostic flight-feather pattern offemale Star-spotted NightjarCaprimulgusstellatus. Note the smudge ofwhite coveringjustthe tip ofthe outermosttail feathers andthe narrowwhiteblotchestothe fouroutermost primaries (Claire Spottiswoode & Michael Mills) 142-BullABC Vol7No2 Photospot > ilarto the partially sympatru and almost indistinguishable Plain Nightpr ( inoniatus Itnth .ire mu.ill ti' medium M/ed i< » pl.unly marked .ind hau* proportionately large heads. while<>n thethn>at, despite this beingwidely citedasa useful field character •Claire Soottiswoodc K Michael Mills Figure 5 Nechisarplains, southern Ethiopian Rift Valley; generally plainer than Plain Nightjit <aprimulgus inomatus habitat of fournightjarspe<ies includingthe little-known andhastiny m thein>wnand s<apulars Nethisat Captimulgussolala (described on the basis ofa singlewingfrom a road-kill) and Starspotted C. stellatus (Claire Spottiswoode) Photospot BullABC Vo!7No2-143