The food of the Afrotropical nightjars

A synthesis of 722 published and unpublished records of nightjar stomach co ntents from Afrotropical specimens was undertaken. Coleoptera were found in 84.6% of the stomachs, often in substantial numbers, beetles providing the se birds with their staple diet. Lepidoptera occurred in 34.9% of the stoma chs and were often present in large numbers; moths ore an extremely importa nt port of the nightjar diet in the Afrotropics, especially during winter. Orthoptera. Hemiptera and Dictyoptera, although present in 24.7, 16.3 and 1 1.5% of the stomachs, respectively, usually occurred in rather small number s. Hymenoptera and Isoptera were often present in great numbers, yet were f ound in only 10.4 and 10.1% of the stomachs, respectively, so a limited num ber of individual nightjars had found emerging swarms of alate ants or term ites in season. Neuroptera. Diptera, Odonota and Dermaptera were found in a few stomachs (2.4, 1.2, 0.6 and 0.3%, respectively) but these insects clea rly ploy a very small port in the diet of nightjars in the Afrotropics. Sim ilarities and differences in diet between some closely related nightjar spe cies ore discussed. Grit was found in 16 stomachs only, so deliberate inges tion of stones to aid digestion is regarded as extremely unlikely among nig htjars in the Afrotropics. The contents of a full stomach may account for a s much as 20-25% of the body moss of a nightjar.