Grey Nightjar (Caprimulgus jotaka)
About the Grey Nightjar
The grey nightjar (Caprimulgus jotaka; also "gray" in some non-local literature) is a species of nightjar found in East Asia, breeding from southeastern Russia south through China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan to northern Indochina and westward along the Himalayas. It is largely migratory, wintering in Indochina south to Java in Indonesia, but is resident in warmer areas in the south of its breeding range. It is sometimes treated as a subspecies of the jungle nightjar (C. indicus), its South Asian relative. The grey nightjar breeds and forages in early successional habitats surrounded by forests; its populations have declined since the 1970s in Japan. Like all nightjars, it is crepuscular to nocturnal, feeding on flying insects, including moths, beetles, flying ants, grasshoppers, and others.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 105 recordings for this species: 37 CC BY-NC-SA · 12 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in China, India, Japan, Malaysia in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- European NightjarCaprimulgus europaeusrecording
- Fiery-necked NightjarCaprimulgus pectoralisrecording
- Indian NightjarCaprimulgus asiaticusrecording
- Jerdon's NightjarCaprimulgus atripennisrecording
- Large-tailed NightjarCaprimulgus macrurusrecording
- Mees's NightjarCaprimulgus meesirecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.