wrote:
> I've seen three individuals in 20 years birding.
>
> All during the day. Most would be seen at night I reckon and I don't go
> birding at night much. I tap on hollows occasionally but never get any
> results.
Like most respondents so far, I also saw few Owlet Nightjars (mostly by
disturbing them accidentally from hollows during the day), until I started
doing lots of fauna survey work (mostly in western NSW where they are common in
most woodlands and open forests). As Lawrie mentioned, they can be seen on back
roads at night, but from my experience they can be difficult to find this way.
They have very little eyeshine, so unlike Spotted/White-throated Nightjars the
eyeshine isn't usually visible as you drive along. Instead, I have found them
by noticing the lump on the road or seeing them fly up when the car is nearly
upon them. They often don't flush on roads until late (and sometimes not at
all), so be careful. The best way I've found to find them is by spotlighting on
foot through the bush, going slowly and searching a small area in a thorough
way (obviously where they are calling from would be a good point to start). As
Alan has mentioned they have very dull eyeshine (sorry, I can't help explain
why), but they do have eyeshine and it can be picked up with experience. It is
somewhat like the eyeshine of some frog and gecko species in strength and
colour, so follow up dull pink to red eyeshine (binos help here) and don't just
concentrate on big and obvious eyeshine like that of most possums and owls.
Perhaps try your spotlight on some frogs in the backyard and see the type of
eyeshine they have. Once you do find the nightjars, they can often be
approached very closely.
Otherwise, you can catch them in harp (bat) traps! By the way, I haven't had
much luck with the tapping/scrapping on bark detection method, but maybe I
haven't tried hard enough.
Cheers
Carl Gosper
Brisbane
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