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Even Sedge Warblers have been known to sing through the night. Artwork by Amy.

Whilst we sleep in our beds at night, we miss some of the most fascinating wildlife. Humans, along with many other animals, are active during the day and use the night time to rest. But there are many nocturnal animals that rest during the day and only emerge at night to hunt. Nocturnal animals have highly adapted senses. Each nocturnal animal has developed a different way to make hunting possible at night. But not all of the animals below are fully nocturnal, they may simply have adapted to coming out at night as well as in the day.

Bats

Although most people think so, none of the world’s bat species are actually blind. They do have poor eyesight though, which is why they mainly hunt using Echolocation. Echolocation is the ability to produce a high-pitched sound which then bounces off nearby objects and gives the bat information about the shape, direction and distance of the object.

 

Owls

Owls use their keen sense of sight and acute hearing to hunt in the dark. They have large eyes that face forwards. This eye placement gives them fantastic binocular-vision and very precise depth perception. An owl’s facial disc acts like a ‘radar dish’ , guiding sounds into the ear openings. Owls are also excellent at silently flying up to an unassuming mouse. This is because they have special feather adaptations that allow them to fly silently without alerting their prey.

Badgers

Badgers have acute hearing and an excellent sense of smell, makes up for their poor eyesight. They use their well-developed hearing and sense of smell to locate their prey- mainly worm. The badger’s small head, long wedge-shaped body and very short tail makes them excellent diggers which enables them to dig up worms and other food sources such as plant bulbs.

 

Foxes

Red foxes are mainly nocturnal except for in Summer when they are raising cubs.  Behind the light-sensitive cells in a fox’s eye there is another layer of cells which reflects light back through the eye, increasing the sharpness of it’s vision and allowing to spot prey more easily. The Fox also has brilliant hearing, and can pick up low-frequency sounds like a vole rustling in the grass. They also have whiskers on their faces and their legs, which help them find their way around.

Other birds

Nightjars are nocturnal birds that migrate from Africa to spend the summer in Britain. Their feather patterns look like dead leaves and tree bark so they are perfectly camouflaged during the day when they remain motionless on the ground. But at night, the males perform a prolonged ‘churring’ call that may go on for several minutes. They also add in some different softer calls and a hand-clapping noise, which is the sound of them clapping their wings together.

Apart from our truly nocturnal birds like the Nightjar, and owl species, there are a few diurnal species that are staying  out at night to sing. Because even low-light intensities can trigger song in some birds, in urban areas where there are lamp posts and houses with lights on some birds are carrying on singing in the night. Robins especially can be triggered by street lights etc, and they are very territorial and so they will sing throughout winter. This is why there have been so many reports of people hearing ‘nightingales’ in the middle of a winters night, which have turned out to be robins. Robins have even been known to join in with other singing nocturnal birds, like the nightingale, to which is distantly related.

It has even been suggested that some urban birds  are being forced to sing at night because it is too noisy for their melodies to be heard during the day.

Another notable urban bird that has been learning to hunt at night is the Peregrine falcon. It was first proved in 2007 when the nesting peregrines on derby cathedral where caught on camera bringing food into the nest in the middle of the night. They have been seen catching woodcocks at night (a largely nocturnal bird) and it is believed they also hunt bats.  In fact, just the other night I heard a Peregrine Falcon calling over my house.

interesting links…

Derby Cathedral video proves peregrines hunt by night http://tinyurl.com/yk5dp7f

Robins forced to sing at night to beat traffic noise http://tinyurl.com/39fm8wv

Artwork and article by Amy (nature__lover)

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