The red-necked nightjar is the largest of the nightjars occurring in Europe. It breeds in Iberia and North Africa, and winters in tropical West Africa.
Region
Iberian Peninsula and Maghreb; winters in West Africa (Sahel)
Typical Environment
Breeds widely across Spain and Portugal and in parts of North Africa, favoring dry, open habitats with scattered trees or shrubs. Typical sites include cork oak and pine woodlands with clearings, maquis and garrigue scrub, heaths, dunes, and mosaic farmland with sandy soils. It avoids dense, closed-canopy forests, preferring edges, firebreaks, and tracks where aerial insects concentrate. During the non-breeding season it winters in the Sahel belt of West Africa, using open savanna and scrub.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1500 m
Climate Zone
Temperate
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
The red-necked nightjar is the largest nightjar in Europe, notable for its warm rufous hindneck collar. It roosts on the ground by day, relying on exceptional camouflage, and becomes active at dusk to hunt flying insects. Like other nightjars, it has a huge gape fringed with bristles that helps funnel prey into its mouth. It often forages along tracks and roads, where its eyeshine is conspicuous in headlights.
Eggs of Caprimulgus ruficollis MHNT
Temperament
solitary and secretive
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats with buoyant glides
Social Behavior
Primarily solitary or in loose, widely spaced pairs during breeding. Nests directly on the ground without a constructed nest, typically laying two eggs on bare substrate or leaf litter. Adults rely on camouflage and distraction displays to deter predators, and may perform wing-clapping displays at dusk.
Migratory Pattern
Seasonal migrant
Song Description
The song is a series of sharp, repeated piping notes, often rendered as 'cuik-cuik' with deliberate pauses, unlike the continuous churr of the European Nightjar. Males also give claps and softer chucks during display. Calls carry well on warm evenings and are most active at dusk and night.
Plumage
Coarsely mottled grey, brown, and rufous with cryptic patterning; soft, dense plumage suited for silent flight and camouflage.
Diet
Feeds almost entirely on flying insects such as moths, beetles, craneflies, and other nocturnal or crepuscular arthropods. Hunts by hawking from low perches, the ground, or while coursing along edges and tracks. It uses its broad gape and rictal bristles to catch prey in flight and may forage around lights where insects concentrate.
Preferred Environment
Frequently forages along woodland edges, firebreaks, clearings, and rural tracks, as well as open scrub and savanna-like habitats. Often hunts low over ground or along linear features that channel insect movements.
