Pygmy Nightjar

Photo by Xyko Paludo
Sítio Pau Preto, Potengi, Ceará, Brazil, July 2017

Nyctipolus hirundinaceus

Identification

16 - 20cm.

• Greyish-brown upperparts and wing-coverts, densely speckled greyish-white or tawny and buff
• No nuchal collar, no scapular pattern
• Thin whitish supercilium and indistinct buff submoustachial stripe
• Large white patch on throat with broad cinnamon-buff band below
• Brown underparts, densely spotted and barred pale buff and greyish-white, becoming buff barred brown on flanks and belly
• Male with white spot on four outermost primaries and white tips to two outermost tail feathers
• Female with smaller wing spots and no white on tail

Similar species

Little Nightjar is browner and more variegated with blackish-brown scapulars broadly edged buff and with indistinct nuchal collar and no supercilium. Least Nighthawk is usually browner, more variable in colour and with a smaller white throat patch and whiter underparts.

Distribution

Endemic to Eastern Brazil.
A restricted-range species. Considered endemic to caatinga of northeast Brazil, but in the 1980's a population in Colatina has been recorded, suggesting further populations may possibly await discovery.

Taxonomy

Three subspecies recognized:

• N.h. cearae in eastern Brazil (Ceará to extreme northern Bahia)
• N.h. hirundinaceus in northeast Brazil (southern Piauí to Bahia and Alagoas)
• N.h. vielliardi in eastern Brazil (Espírito Santo)

This species was formerly included in the genus Caprimulgus.

Habitat

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests; Caatinga.

Behaviour

Diet

Presumably feeds on insects.
Forages in open country.

Breeding

Not well known. Recorded nest-sites beside dirt roads and tracks.

Movements

Probably sedentary

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and J Sargatal, eds. 1999. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 5: Barn-Owls to Hummingbirds. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334252

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Pygmy Nightjar. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 24 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Pygmy_Nightjar

External Links

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