News Animals

These birds clack their wing bones together to woo mates at night

Steamy nightjar nights are punctuated by a profoundly percussive male performance

A nightjar bird flies through the air with outstretched wings against a blurry background of treetops

Scissor-tailed nightjars have long been known to make explosive cracking noises at night.

Rogerio Peccioli/iStock/Getty Images Plus

By Jake Buehler

This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .)

A series of sharp cracks splits the nighttime air in a forest in the Andean foothills.