Many studies stop following the fate of young individuals once they leave the nest, and only restart once they return to breed as adults. As part of the PhD project of Paula Hidalgo Rodriguez, and in collaboration with Carlos Camacho and other colleagues, we try to see what’s inside the black box of juvenile survival and movement. Ironically, we do this with the Red-necked nightjar, a species which is active in the dark, and extremely cryptic by day. However, frequent capturing of individuals at night gives some idea of survival and movement, and Paula adds to this by tracking a sample of the population with radiotransmitters and GPS tags.