White-tailed Nightjar - BirdForum Opus

Photo by max1
Little Tobago, February 2012

Hydropsalis cayennensis

Identification

Juvenile
Photo © by birdboybowley
Cuffie River Nature Resort, Tobago, 15 June 2018

20–22·5 cm (7¾-8¾)
Male: Pale grey above mottled with buffy brown and dark brown. Prominent cinnamon collar on hindneck. White throat and supercilium; buffy breast with dark, course barring some white spots; white belly.
Broad white band across primaries like Lesser Nighthawk. Tail notched, mostly white underneath. Grey and dusky above.
Female: Quite different to male. darker above and buffier below. Also has the cinnamon nuchal collar; Wings more narrowly banded with white. Tail banded buff and dusky, no white; throat and belly light ochre; dusky barring on breast with white spots.

Distribution

Central and South America: found from Costa Rica to the Guianas; extreme northern Brazil.

Taxonomy

This species was formerly included in the genus Caprimulgus.

Subspecies

Six subspecies are recognized^[1]:

• H. c. albicauda:

• Savanna of south-eastern Costa Rica to north-western Colombia

• H. c. aperta:

• Western Colombia to extreme northern Ecuador

• H. c. insularis:

• North-eastern Colombia, north-western Venezuela, Isla Margarita and adjacent islands

• H. c. manati:

• Martinique (Lesser Antilles)

• H. c. leopetes:

• Trinidad, Tobago, Bocas Islands and Little Tobago

• H. c. cayennensis:

• Eastern Colombia to Venezuela, the Guianas and extreme northern Brazil

Habitat

Open, rather dry grassy areas, bushy savannas and barren hillsides in lowlands.

Behaviour

Strictly nocturnal.

Diet

Their diet consists of a wide variety of insects, such as moths, flies, beetles, damselflies, crickets and grasshoppers.

Breeding

The clutch consists of 2 pale reddish-buff eggs with purple or brownish markings. They are ground nesters.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Ferraro, M. M. (2020). White-tailed Nightjar (Hydropsalis cayennensis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.whtnig1.01

1. Birdforum thread discussing which genus this species belongs to
2. Cornell Lab, Neotropical birds

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-tailed Nightjar. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-tailed_Nightjar

External Links

Search for photos of White-tailed Nightjar in the gallery