The Pennant-Winged Nightjar (Macrodipteryx vexillarius)

There are, perhaps, much more frightening birds than the male pennant-winged nightjar (Macrodipteryx vexillarius), but few live a more poetic lifestyle.

A native of African woodlands south of the equator, and a connoisseur of scarab beetles and other flying insects, they are active at dusk and dawn. The photos shown here are of males in breeding season. The second primary feather on each wing is elongated, and each year it grows longer, up until the point where it more than doubles the birds' body length. The feathers are shown during display flight "dances", of which females often join. The female lays one or two pink eggs on the full moon in a bare nest on the ground. Although the are most often solitary birds, they take on multiple mates.