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Courtship displays of the Pennant-winged Nightjar, Semeiophorus vexillarius
Abstract
Use of a night-vision telescope, with a Pocket Memo for
recording a running commentary, allowed the courtship displays of a male
Pennant-winged Nightjar, Semeiophorus vexillarius, near the Muneni River
(18°59\'S, 32°41\'E, 1 000m), Zimbabwe, to be observed and noted in great detail
during five hours at dusk and dawn in October 1971. This male, in breeding
dress, regularly displayed in a clearing in the Brachystegia / Julbernardia
woodland, with sparsely spaced trees and very short burnt grass. His
favourite perch was a small (10 x 8 x 5cm high) but conspicuous white stone,
which served as the focal point for my observations.
Table 1 provides an
approximate record of this male\'s activities from 18h06 to 21h30 on 4 October
(a verbatim transcript of the recorded field notes is available by e-mail).
Further observations were recorded from 03h30 to 05h00 on 14 October. Casual
observations of courtship displays were also made with conventional (7 x 50)
binoculars at Muneni River, and at Warren Hills (17°50\'S, 30°59\'E), Ranelia
Farm (19°22\'S, 32°37\'E), and Bulawayo (20°10\'S, 28°35\'E), all in Zimbabwe, and
Chilumba (10°26\'S, 34°16\'E), Malawi.
My observations, with those
of Shaw (1993) and the few other first-hand accounts available (Parnell 1960,
Masterson 1972, Weaving 1973, Stjernstedt 1975, 1979, Bruce-Miller 1983, Sievi in
litt. 2000), allow presentation of the following speculative synthesis.
Ostrich 2004, 75(1&2): 1–4
recording a running commentary, allowed the courtship displays of a male
Pennant-winged Nightjar, Semeiophorus vexillarius, near the Muneni River
(18°59\'S, 32°41\'E, 1 000m), Zimbabwe, to be observed and noted in great detail
during five hours at dusk and dawn in October 1971. This male, in breeding
dress, regularly displayed in a clearing in the Brachystegia / Julbernardia
woodland, with sparsely spaced trees and very short burnt grass. His
favourite perch was a small (10 x 8 x 5cm high) but conspicuous white stone,
which served as the focal point for my observations.
Table 1 provides an
approximate record of this male\'s activities from 18h06 to 21h30 on 4 October
(a verbatim transcript of the recorded field notes is available by e-mail).
Further observations were recorded from 03h30 to 05h00 on 14 October. Casual
observations of courtship displays were also made with conventional (7 x 50)
binoculars at Muneni River, and at Warren Hills (17°50\'S, 30°59\'E), Ranelia
Farm (19°22\'S, 32°37\'E), and Bulawayo (20°10\'S, 28°35\'E), all in Zimbabwe, and
Chilumba (10°26\'S, 34°16\'E), Malawi.
My observations, with those
of Shaw (1993) and the few other first-hand accounts available (Parnell 1960,
Masterson 1972, Weaving 1973, Stjernstedt 1975, 1979, Bruce-Miller 1983, Sievi in
litt. 2000), allow presentation of the following speculative synthesis.
Ostrich 2004, 75(1&2): 1–4
