📖+10 XP
🎧+10 XP
✅+15 XP
Level A1 – BeginnerCEFR A1
2 min
71 words
- Scissor-tailed nightjars live in northern Argentina at night.
- They fly and hunt moths and beetles.
- Males have long forked tails that spread.
- People heard sharp snapping sounds near them.
- Scientists recorded the snaps with special cameras.
- The cameras showed males striking wing joints together.
- The snaps are not bird calls but wing impacts.
- Birds hit their wing bones to make a clap.
- Researchers still seek the source of another sound.
Difficult words
- hunt — look for and catch animals for food
- moth — a usually night insect with wingsmoths
- beetle — an insect with a hard shell backbeetles
- snap — a short loud sound like a clapsnapping, snaps
- joint — a place where two parts meetwing joints
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Do you hear birds at night?
- Have you seen moths or beetles?
- Have you heard a sharp snapping sound?
Related articles
9 Sept 2025
28 Nov 2025
New acid-free way to recycle lithium-ion batteries
Researchers at Rice University developed a two-step FJH-ClO process that separates lithium and other metals from spent batteries. The lab-scale method recovers valuable materials with less energy, fewer chemicals and less wastewater.
26 Dec 2025
Molecules in million‑year‑old fossils show a warmer, wetter past
Researchers extracted metabolism molecules from fossil bones aged 1.3–3 million years. Analyses of animal and plant metabolites reveal diets, infections and local environments and suggest the study sites were warmer and wetter than today.
4 Feb 2026
6 Dec 2025