Indian nightjar

Tungabhadra canal side road, Hampi, Karnataka

Indian Nightjar, such a beautiful bird, even though it can be found in all over India that’s what people say but I found it first time in Hampi canal side road sitting on the middle. And I was equally so excited. Suppose Pampayya sir is driving the car after dusk and after every 500 meters you see it sitting in the middle of the road, it has red eyes and can be seen in low light. It just drove me crazy to see such a large quantity of Nightjar in Hampi. In one side of the road it is barren land and on the other side there is the Tungabhadra canal, so when we were driving and came nearby to the bird it flew away every time towards the ground. I asked why don’t they fly towards the canal side, why only towards the ground? Pampayya sir told they know their path and they come to the road for insects and if they need to return, it will fly towards the ground only. Another thing I noticed they always face canal side only and their back faces the field and they sit perpendicular with the road always, they never sit horizontal with the road directions. And when they need to fly they will fly backwards toward the ground from how they sit. That was so surprising to me.

At first I faced challenges to shoot this bird because of my point and shoot camera. You won’t believe the bird allowed us so close but obviously we need to crawl on the road which was pretty normal for this hobby. Pampayya sir encouraged us to be more close to get more good shots. You won’t believe I came so close by crawling that I first took the picture and video with my mobile. Then I have taken pictures with my camera. In picture you will see my friend went so close to the bird.