Savanna Nightjar is a common bird of Lamma . They are only active at night so that they are difficult to see except in their breeding season from Apri to Jun.They will call very loudly on the ground or at the sky just after sunset .

Nice one. I've never seen one before. How you ever managed to notice it it without stepping on it I don't know.
According to "Birds of Hong Kong" is a bird that is on the decline and HKBWS made a special field trip over here a few months ago just to try & catch a glimpse of the bird. Not sure if they succeeded.
Seems the reason they are on the decline is through loss of habitat. With the "burnings" we have on Lamma is not really suprising.

Zep claims to have stepped out on his balcony one morning to find one resting there. But then that's Zep........ who knows ?

I know you are trying to pick a fight, but I'll leave that to the worthy gentlemen in Fightclub!

I did indeed have a nightjar resting in a fork in a tree branch just a few metres from my roof in October 2004, but this was the migratory Japanese or Grey nightjar. I had great views of it all day, but unfortunately did not have a camera.

The savannah nightjars are always around, but unless you almost step on one and flush it, the chances of seeing one outside the breeding season are very slim. The picture of the one on the ground is fantastic - a great stroke of luck, or some secret technique for locating them??

Around May you can hear the loud "schweep" calls as the birds skim for insects just before dark, and they can often be seen on the hills behind Tai Peng.

Finally I know what this bird look like and, there are many of them in Fanling and Sheung Shui Region, you can hear them every night, and its really loud, it can go as fars a few miles for sure- of course you will have to be in country side to hear them....I used to think those noise was from barn owl.. do they always stay on the ground when they sing( to echo off farther?)

The savannah nightjars can be seen most evenings around the hills behind Yung Shue Wan and Hung Shing Yeh (Mt Panorama etc) just before dark. They are quite hard to photograph, though, because the light has faded almost into darkness when they like to skim around looking for insects. They usually call from the air, and the sound - a harsh "schweep" - is quite strange in that is seems to be coming from different locations or directions, so the bird must have some trick to throw its voice. They sometimes fly around in the mornings until around 9 am as well.

Hey Zep,
I am not much of a bird watcher, but had been growing up from HK country side all along except the nine years I spent in UK and Canada, I am now living in Fanling area of NT, I do know a lot about wild life in the area(in water, on land or in air - use to spent my summer holidays catching all sorts of things and bring them home as pets - family used to own a huge fish farm for tropical fish breeding), but just this Sunday when I am walking home after lunch, I saw this couple of birds which I swear I never saw in Hong Kong before, I took a few pictures, but because the distance is pretty far off, there is only one showing some obvious feature which I think you might be able to identify, again, there were two of them, but I manage to take picture from just one of them, the size of them are a little bigger than a Magpie, black feathers with some white, when it spread its wing, there is a white ban (sort of like the ceasted myna), very cautious bird, when I try to get close without cover, to about 30 yards, it flew off. From the picture attached, you may notice the beak, looks like some kind of of bird of prey...anyway, hope you will find out what kind of bird is this, I will keep looking out for them ...if I can take more pictures, will post it here to share.......again sorry for the poor quality picture.