Other than the hummingbirds, trogons (if you count them), and tawny frogmouth, how many collections keep Strisores; the true and tree swifts, true and owlet nightjars, potoos and oilbird. I have a particular interest in the captive history of the potoos, owlet nightjars, cave-nesting swifts and the oilbird. I am predicting they will fare best at aviary life because they are used to navigating caves or hunt from a perch in the flycatcher style, and the other constraint on their care is diet.
True nightjars have done extremely well in the past, including captive breeding in a domestic setting (European Nightjar) and non-releasable wild casualties as encounter birds (Common Nighthawk). If any of these species are in zoos, they will be in some of the 'thinking outside the box' Eastern European collections.
I remember from this site, that common swifts bred at least once, so even the most specialised of the strisores have more potential than ppl think. What had got me thinking was the mention today of a cave zoo at a UK tourist attraction. Oilbirds and cave swiftlets sprung to mind, after I thought about bats. Is there a reason oilbirds should be difficult, more than megabats or fruit eating phyllostomids? Zoos like Chester mix little phyllostomids with megabats, but oilbirds are more regionally appropriate, right?
