Sykes's Nightjar

Sykes's nightjar, also called the Sind nightjar, is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent, predominantly in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The plumage is brown and grey, sandy above with blackish-brown and pale brown spots, so it resembles tree bark, leaf litter or sandy ground. It has a short, pale grey bill with bristles round the mouth and dark blackish-brown irises (Wikipedia, general species account).

The species is partially migratory, wintering in western and central India, visiting south-western Afghanistan in summer, and breeding in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India. It is very agile and buoyant when foraging, flying low over open terrain, and it feeds mainly on large night-flying insects such as moths, beetles, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets and cicadas. When startled or in display it gives soft chuk-chuk or cluk-cluk notes. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident and winter migrant of open habitat that eats invertebrates, and does not assign a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).