Slender-tailed Nightjar

Caprimulgus clarus

Other Names

  Reichenow's Nightjar   Engoulevent de Reichenow   Kurzschleppen-Nachtschwalbe   Chotacabras Colifino     Reichenows Nachtzwaluw   Succiacapre codasottile

World: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda. Recorded as a vagrant in the Congo. UNEP WCMC world distribution map

Kenya: Virtually unrecorded in the drier Northern and Eastern parts of the country and also in the Central and Western highlands. Elsewhere it is common to locally abundant

Their is some confusion over the taxonomy of this particular species, with some authorities grouping it with Long-tailed and Gabon Nightjars. We have followed the Lewis and Pomeroy classification. Nightjars are difficult to distinguish in the field and, as many of the species overlap, this makes firm identification difficult. Zimmerman, Turner and Pearson do, however, include an excellent key to identifying Kenyan Nightjars in the hand, in their "Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania", which can be used if you are lucky enough to get a long, close look. Handling wild birds should, of course, be left to experts.

The Slender-tailed Nightjar can be seen hawking for insects around lights and is consequently a common sight in many of the lodges. They tend to fly low, alighting on rocks and stumps or even bare ground. By day they roost on the ground under shrub cover, flying only a short distance if disturbed. It breeds in Kenya in April and May, without building a nest, simply laying it's eggs on bare ground, usually under a bush. The bird above was photographed (after much effort) in the grounds of the Lake Baringo Club. Despite knowing exactly where it was roosting we still spent a considerable amount of time scanning the fallen twigs, leaves and branches across a surprisingly small area, before we eventually sorted the bird from the rocks and debris. In Kenya it's also found in Amboseli and the Maasai Mara.