Standard-winged nightjar

The standard-winged nightjar is a resident breeder in Africa from southern Senegal east to Ethiopia. It spends the non-breeding season in the Sahel region to the north. Its habitat includes lightly wooded savanna, with some scrub, as well as agricultural land in thickly wooded savanna. but is typically found from sea level up to elevations of . ==Description==

When roosting on the ground during the day, this medium-sized ( long) nightjar is mainly variegated grey, with a browner collar. It has a shadowy form with easy, silent moth-like flight; this nightjar is relatively short-tailed, and lacks white in the wings or tail. The song is a churring trill. on each wing elongated to up to , ==Behaviour==

Like other nightjars, the standard-winged nightjar feeds on insects in flight, their mouths opening wide for moths and beetles. It flies at dusk, when the highest quantity of prey is available, though its foraging patterns change depending on moonlight, with later, more nocturnal foraging correlated with higher levels of moonlight. It may also feed on swarms of insects disturbed by fires and artificial lights, a behaviour which has been linked to bird strike by cars when their lights illuminate roads. During breeding season, male and (less frequently) female standard-winged nightjars will gather in patches of soil with little vegetation to forage and for males to perform display flights. == Nomenclature ==

Though the standard-winged nightjar was originally placed in the genus Caprimulgus as in its first identification by George Shaw in 1796, it was later placed in the genus Macrodipteryx along with the pennant-winged nightjar. The two species are closely related, == Ecology and conservation ==

Standard-winged nightjars are migratory birds and travel to and from breeding grounds annually. The precise breeding season varies based on region, and is affected by prey availability and rain; populations that live in more southern regions breed earlier than those in northern regions. The standard-winged nightjar population is not considered to be under threat and is listed as least-concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the IUCN Red List. ==References==