'If I hear you by my hollow, I can’t resist a peek'

I’m the smallest of them all

Of those birds that hunt by night

Common and widely found

If you look up to a height

Even in the day

When I’m usually asleep

If I hear you by my hollow

I can’t resist a peak

I wait for my insect dinner

From a spot perched on a tree

I often hunt in pairs

And always in my territory

What on earth am I?

I’m an owlet-nightjar.

Now, if you’ve never seen an Owlet-Nightjar before, let me introduce you to the world’s cutest bird. Seriously. Just look at those big brown eyes which, incidentally, are non-reflective if you happen to spot one by torchlight. I’ve only seen these birds in the day and most of the time it’s because I am hard-wired to stare up at every hollow we walk past. You never know who might be residing inside!

These birds are the smallest of all nocturnal birds, around 23cm and that includes their tail. Although if you only saw them peeking out from inside their hollow, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were just one little round ball of fluff. But they do have a tail, and it’s striped and quite wide. I’ve only seen the tail briefly as one particular bird kept flying in one end of a tree branch and out another hollow. It was like watching a very strange magic act, ‘now you see me, now you don’t and now I’m over here’!

We’re just at the very start of the breeding season, which runs from July/August through to December, so you might hear them calling a very non-melodic repetitive, three-noted call. Well, they can’t have good looks and a beautiful song now, can they?

I found this bird at Darkes Forest, or rather my husband did (credit where credit is due) but they can be found pretty much Australia wide, as long as there’s trees with suitable hollows.

Matt was walking ahead of me, what with his longer legs and less interest in stopping and taking photos of every.single.wildflower along the way. I heard him yell out something and saw him turn quickly, facing the wall of twisted gums, gnarled banksias and spiky grasses, camera at the ready. My mind started to flick through my rolodex of possible wildlife: echidna? Snake? Sleeping possum? And I, as quietly as possible, rushed up to his side and followed his lens to a shallow hollow of... nothing.

And then, after maybe a minute, when we were both quiet and still, the fluffy ball of adorableness that is the Owlet-Nightjar popped his head up and looked around blinking his enormous brown eyes and well and truly sussing us out. Now I was prepared for insects and so, like the amateur that I am, I left my long lens at home, which meant that to get a half decent photo of this little fellow, I had to sneak up a little closer. Making my way across a carpet of browned and crisped leaves. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Oops.

Turns out, I am more interesting than I am scary and after hiding away again for a minute or two, the Nightjar's curiosity got the better of it and it popped back up, looking around once again.

Birdlife Australia has a fantastic booklet on identifying our nocturnal birds. Read it here.