{"id":688577,"date":"2026-01-11T09:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/688577\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T09:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:06:12","slug":"nightjar-rare-discovery-as-elusive-bird-found-behind-belfast-bin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/688577\/","title":{"rendered":"Nightjar: Rare discovery as elusive bird found behind Belfast bin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nightjars were once a more common sight and sound on the island of Ireland, according to Birdwatch Ireland’s Conservation Officer, John Lusby.<\/p>\n

He points out their distinctive call used to be so well-known that Irish speakers named the bird t\u00fairne l\u00edn, which means spinning wheel.<\/p>\n

This name refers to the churring sound made by the male of the species.<\/p>\n

Lusby said nightjar numbers “diminished dramatically” across Ireland in the latter half of the 20th Century,<\/p>\n

He puts the decline down to the loss of habitat and pesticide use, because nightjars feed mainly on insects.<\/p>\n

In fact, a few years ago, the “general consensus was that we had effectively lost nightjars” according to a 2024 report by Lusby.<\/p>\n

But that summer he coordinated a survey which found evidence of a very small number in the south east of Ireland, described by Lusby as the “last remaining stronghold” on the island.<\/p>\n

The study concentrated on counties Kilkenny and Wexford, external<\/a> where researchers recorded “hundreds of hours” of birdsong.<\/p>\n

They detected nightjar calls from two of the survey sites, but could only find one pair breeding successfully.<\/p>\n

The team has since conducted a wider study which also incorporates Waterford and Tipperary.<\/p>\n

This time they managed to get footage of the breeding pair’s nest, monitoring it from a safe distance using a drone with a thermal sensor. <\/p>\n

The location of the nest is being kept secret so the birds are not disturbed.<\/p>\n

Lusby was surprised to hear a nightjar was found as far north as Belfast.<\/p>\n

But he explained it is a type of bird that stays “under the radar” and “may be present” in small numbers in areas that researchers are not yet aware of.<\/p>\n

The results of Birdwatch Ireland’s 2025 nightjar survey are expected to be released within weeks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nightjars were once a more common sight and sound on the island of Ireland, according to Birdwatch Ireland’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-688577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115875675437833351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}