The little bird that wouldn’t go home

THE female pennant-winged nightjar which travelled to the North with The Namibian’s distribution lorry on December 18 was finally successfully released after three attempts.

The bird was in a weakened state when Mark Paxton from Shamvura Camp found it next to the Rundu main road, and she was sent to the Narrec centre outside Windhoek for rehabilitation. Her body weight was only half of what it should have been, but after three weeks at Narrec she had gained enough weight to be sent back to Rundu for release.Because pennant-winged nightjars are migrant birds and only occur in the north-eastern parts of Namibia, her best chance of survival was to be released into her natural environment as close as possible to where she was found.Mark Paxton released the bird at Shamvura Camp on December 18, but two days later she was spotted 50 km from the camp, looking lost and disoriented.Paxton once again rescued her and kept her for 48 hours, feeding her with insects in an attempt to build up her strength.On December 22 she was released for a second time, but once again it was not successful.The little night owl was picked up in the floodplain east of Shamvura Camp that same evening, soaking wet and extremely weak.Paxton put her under a heat lamp until she stabilised, and fed her for another three days.She was finally successfully released on Christmas Day, when she took off in grand style heading towards the woodlands away form the river.She has not been seen since and Paxton is positive that she was finally strong enough to make it.Pennant-winged nightjars are intra-African migrants that spend summer in north-eastern Namibia, southern Angola, southern Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and parts of Kwazulu-Natal, moving to tropical central Africa for the winter.Although regarded as fairly common, they are seen only occasionally.The male, when in breeding plumage, has spectacular pennants on his wings, which can be up to a metre in length.Her body weight was only half of what it should have been, but after three weeks at Narrec she had gained enough weight to be sent back to Rundu for release.Because pennant-winged nightjars are migrant birds and only occur in the north-eastern parts of Namibia, her best chance of survival was to be released into her natural environment as close as possible to where she was found.Mark Paxton released the bird at Shamvura Camp on December 18, but two days later she was spotted 50 km from the camp, looking lost and disoriented.Paxton once again rescued her and kept her for 48 hours, feeding her with insects in an attempt to build up her strength. On December 22 she was released for a second time, but once again it was not successful.The little night owl was picked up in the floodplain east of Shamvura Camp that same evening, soaking wet and extremely weak.Paxton put her under a heat lamp until she stabilised, and fed her for another three days.She was finally successfully released on Christmas Day, when she took off in grand style heading towards the woodlands away form the river.She has not been seen since and Paxton is positive that she was finally strong enough to make it.Pennant-winged nightjars are intra-African migrants that spend summer in north-eastern Namibia, southern Angola, southern Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and parts of Kwazulu-Natal, moving to tropical central Africa for the winter.Although regarded as fairly common, they are seen only occasionally.The male, when in breeding plumage, has spectacular pennants on his wings, which can be up to a metre in length.