This bird show contrast in face with a strong white moustachial stripe and are the bird are in general IMHO to dark for an Egyptian Nightjar.

It looks like a female Common/European Nightjar (no white pattern in wing in female EN) or am i missing something? (could be!)

Kind regards / Mattias

Hi Mattias,

Thought so too.

Additionally the outermost tip of the hand should perhaps be more solidly dark, were it an Egyptian, but then again you don't see many flight-photos of Nightjars taken from below in bright daylight.....

Otto, do you have more photos, and what is your take on the suggestion of female Common N.?

Hi Matthias & Peter
thank you very much for your comments. After some investigation I am also of the opinion that the bird is indeed a juvenile European Nightjar:
- the head pattern doesn´t fit to Egyptian Nightjar (strong contrast in face)
- juvenile European Nightjar miss the white patch on the underwing
- undertail coverts of juvenile European Nightjar are paler than the adult ones
- our first impression of the flying bird was that of a very pale Nightjar, but the paleness of the bird was created by the sandy underground in bright sunlight

King regards
Otto

Hermed rettet fra Ørkennatravn / Egyptian Nightjar til Natravn / European Nightjar.

Med venlig hilsen

Rasmus Strack