Today two visitors [David Wimpress (UK) & Fredrik Hermansson (Sweden)] and I
managed to entice an Australian Owlet-nightjar to peer out from a hollow in
a recommended River Redgum on the banks of Hovell's Creek in the Western
Block of the You Yangs Regional Park in southern Victoria. I promised David
and Fredrik I would check the place of the owlet-nightjar in the scheme of
things in HBW. What I wrote to them (see below) I thought may be of some
interest to some readers of Birding-Aus.
I've researched the affinities of Australian Owlet-nightjar in the Handbook
of the Birds of the World, Vol 5.
Owlet-nightjars are placed in the Order Caprimulgiformes, Suborder
Caprimulgi [the other suborder Steatornithes contains only the monotypical
Oilbird of northern and north-western South America (it is perhaps most
easily seen at the well-known Asa Wright Lodge in Trinidad)].
Caprimulgi consists of four Families - the owlet-nightjars, the frogmouths,
the potoos and the nightjars.
There are nine species of owlet-nightjars - one in Australia (easily the
most widespread, being found throughout all areas of the Australian mainland
and Tasmania), six in New Guinea (some very localized), one in the Moluccas
and one in New Caledonia. The grey-coloured bird we saw today was a male
(the female is rufous). It is an insectivorous species.
Richard NOWOTNY
Port Melbourne, Victoria
M: 0438 224 456
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