Brown Nightjar

A medium-sized gray-brown starling with dark wings and tail and a whitish rump. The pale bill and lemon-yellow facial skin in females and non-breeding males is subdued, but breeding males often acquire long, fleshy, dangling black wattles and canary-yellow naked skin on the head. This nomad always tends to be in groups, and breeds opportunistically in colonies. It occurs irregularly and is irruptive in short grasslands and open savannas; at any given location it may number in the thousands in some years, and be absent in others. It may associate with large mammals, capturing insects that they flush. Both sexes give a variety of squeaks and hissing notes.

Associated closely with the dense reedy vegetation of expansive wetlands, this baby-faced bird has a gray head, smart black eyebrow, and a warm brown body. While possessing the typical stout bill and long tail of most parrotbills, this species also has an exceptionally lanky appearance, unlike most of its stouter, more rotund kin. Gives raspy whistles and trills from the cover of the reeds as it moves through the vegetation in small-to-medium-sized flocks.

Elegant, long-tailed bird with a brownish back, pale underparts, and a black chest band. White outer tail is conspicuous in flight. Found in most open habitats, especially those near water. Feeds by walking along the ground, bobbing its tail constantly. Call is a buzzy “tseeei” that is often doubled. Song is a complex jumble of different repeated notes. Similar to Mountain Wagtail but has brown rather than gray upperparts, and Cape has less white in the wings and tail. Also similar to juvenile African Pied Wagtail but lacks a white panel in the wing.