Caprimulgidae
ヨタカ科
yo-taka ka

General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Species list may not be current. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green Lettering Green lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

Japan has one species of nightjar, Caprimulgus indicus. The 'nightjar' is known in Japanese as ヨタカ yo-taka 'night-hawk', written with the Chinese characters 夜鷹, quite literally 'night hawk'. It may also be written 蚊母鳥 'mosquito mother bird' or 怪鴟 'strange hawk/owl'. Both of the latter are actually Chinese names that have been borrowed in written form but customarily read ヨタカ yo-taka in Japanese. The name yo-taka appears to be of Japanese origin since it uses native Japanese elements.

The characters 蚊母鳥 'mosquito mother bird' may also be read ブンボチョウ bunbo-chō, an on-yomi (Chinese style reading) indicating an actual borrowing from Chinese. As a result, 蚊母鳥 can be read either ヨタカ yo-taka or ブンボチョウ bunbo-chō.

Another name is カスイドリ (蚊吸い鳥) ka-sui-dori meaning 'mosquito-sucking bird'.

Species names

CAPRIMULGINAE
SCIENTIFIC & WESTERN		JAPANESE		CHINESE			KOREAN
Caprimulgus
Latin	Eng, Fr, Ger, Ru	Japanese	Other J	Chinese	Chinese (Taiwan)	Other Ch	Korean
Caprimulgus indicus	Grey nightjar Jungle nightjar Indian jungle nightjar Engoulevent jotaka Dschungelnachtschwalbe Большой козодой	ヨタカ (夜鷹 ~ 蚊母鳥 ~ 怪鴟) yo-taka 'night-hawk'	カスイドリ (蚊吸い鳥) ka-sui-dori 'mosquito sucking bird' ナマスタタキ namasu-tataki 'fish-salad beater' (?) ブンボチョウ (蚊母鳥) bunbo-chō 'mosquito mother bird' (from Chinese)	普通夜鹰 (普通夜鷹) pǔtōng yè-yīng 'common night-hawk'	(普通夜鹰) 普通夜鷹 pǔtōng yè-yīng 'common night hawk' or (日本夜鹰) 日本夜鷹 rìběn yè-yīng 'Japanese night hawk'	夜鹰 (夜鷹) yè-yīng 'night-hawk' 蚊母鸟 (蚊母鳥) wén-mǔ-niǎo 'mosquito mother bird' (dict) (FS) 夜游鸽 (夜遊鴿) yè yóu gē 'night roaming pigeon' 鬼鸟 (鬼鳥) guǐ-niǎo 'demon bird' (northern) (FS) 贴树皮 (貼樹皮) tiē shù-pí 'stick-to tree bark' (FS) 夜燕 (夜燕) yè-yàn 'night-swallow' (FS)	쏙독새 ssokdok-sae 'ssokdok bird' Taxonomy

The word ヨタカ yo-taka can traditionally be written in several ways in Japanese. 1. The straightforward use of characters to represent the components of the word, i.e. 夜鷹 (夜 yo 'night' + 鷹 taka 'hawk'); 2. Borrowing of the characters for the equivalent Chinese name as a single unit, i.e., 蚊母鳥 'mosquito mother bird'; and 3. A different set of Chinese characters that presumably also referred to the nightjars in Chinese, 怪鴟 , literally 'strange hawk' (original meaning) or 'strange owl' (more recent meaning).

中国鸟类种和亚种分类名录大全（修订版） 郑作新 著 科学出版社 北京 2000年
A Complete Checklist of Species and Subspecies of the Chinese Birds (Revised Edition) by Cheng Tso-Hsin, Science Press, Beijing 2000

中国鸟类分类与分布名录 主编：郑光美 科学出版社 北京 2005年
A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of China Chief editor: Zheng Guangmei, Science Press, Beijing 2005

中国鸟类野外手册（中文版）约翰・马敬能、卡伦・菲利普斯，合作者：荷芬奇，翻译：卢和芬 湖南教育出版社 长沙 2000年
A Field Guide to the Birds of China (Chinese translation) by John MacKinnon, Karen Phillipps, in collaboration with He Fen-qi, translated by Lu Hefen, Hunan Jiaoyu Chubanshe (Hunan Educational Press) Changsha 2000

世界鸟类分类与分布名录 主编：郑光美 科学出版社 北京 2002年
A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of the World Chief editor: Zheng Guangmei, Science Press, Beijing 2002

世界鸟类名称（拉丁文、汉文、英文对照）第二版 郑作新等 科学出版社 北京 2002年
Birds of the World (Latin, Chinese and English Names) 2nd ed. by Cheng Tso-Hsin et al, Science Press, Beijing 2002