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Mainly crepuscular or nocturnal nonpasserine birds with mottled grayish-brown plumage and large eyes
Answer for the clue "Mainly crepuscular or nocturnal nonpasserine birds with mottled grayish-brown plumage and large eyes ", 8 letters:
nightjar
Alternative clues for the word nightjar
Word definitions for nightjar in dictionaries
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
nocturnal bird, goatsucker, 1620s, from night + jar (v.). So called for the "jarring" sounds made by the male when the female is brooding, which have been described as a "churring trill that seems to change direction as it rises and falls." An Old English ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. mainly crepuscular or nocturnal nonpasserine birds with mottled grayish-brown plumage and large eyes; feed on insects [syn: goatsucker , caprimulgid ]
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae , characterized by long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers , due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats ...
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Goatsucker \Goat"suck`er\, n. (Zo["o]l.) One of several species of insectivorous birds, belonging to Caprimulgus and allied genera, esp. the European species ( Caprimulgus Europ[ae]us ); -- so called from the mistaken notion that it sucks goats. The European ...
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. Any of various medium-sized nocturnal birds of the family Caprimulgidae, that feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.
Usage examples of nightjar.
Hours later, crickets chirruped and nightjars cooed as evening stippled the jungle canopy with scattershot stars.
The only sounds were their out-of-breath gasps as they pistoned their fists into him and the liquid twitter of a nightjar in the deep stand of pine close by.
We are rich in nightjars, as you know - do you hear the one over to the east?
After a while, during which at least three separate nightjars churred and one owl called, she said, 'Stephen, you do me infinite honour, and it grieves me more than I can say to desire you to dismiss the subject from your mind.
There were few birds he preferred to nightjars, but it was not that they had brought him out of bed: he stood leaning on the balcony rail and presently Jack Aubrey, in a summer-house by the bowling-green, began again, playing very gently in the darkness, improvising wholly for himself, dreaming away on his violin with a mastery that Stephen had never heard equalled, though they had played together for years and years.
Every so often, their glow would briefly light up other, larger shapes: bats and nightjars swooping down to take advantage of the feast set out before them.