Breeding
No nest is made - they occupy unvegetated gaps:
- lowland heath - unvegetated gaps in deep heather in dry heath. This offers shelter and camouflage, and concealment from potential predators. Scattered trees are used to sing from, and to roost in.
- In conifer forest clearings, clearfells and restocks, especially those on former heathland, nightjars use vegetation structures that are very like that on heathland, as well as gaps in lying brash, for concealment.
- In coppice woods, nightjars nest in large recently cut coups (clearings), which remain suitable until the canopy closes, in about four to five years.
The two elongated and elliptical eggs, creamy white mottled with brown, purple and liver-colour are placed upon the bare ground amongst bracken or stones; the brooding bird, sitting closely, is their best protection. They are seldom laid before the end of May. The male occasionally broods. The female will "squatter" away to attract attention if disturbed, rolling and fluttering in a perfect frenzy.
The newly hatched young are covered with vermiculated grey and brown down, livid blue skin showing on the naked nape and back; the combed or pectinated claw of the adult, is represented by a horny unserrated plate. The call is a querulous cheep.
They quickly become active and the parents soon remove them if the nest has been visited. At times a second brood is reared. Migration begins in August, and by the middle of September most birds have left for the south.
There is good evidence that they can be disturbed by human activity, e.g. by their pet dogs, resulting in less chicks surviving.
Read more about this topic: European Nightjar
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