All species › Nightjars › Nightjars and nighthawks › White-tailed Nightjar
Position in the tree Birds Aves › Birds with a flexible palate Neognathae › All other modern birds Neoaves › Birds of the elements Elementaves › Nightjars and swifts Strisores
White-tailed Nightjar | Hydropsalis cayennensis
Witstaartnachtzwaluw | Chotacabras coliblanco
The White-tailed Nightjar is a small nightjar of open, grassy landscapes. It reaches its northern limit in the guide area, occurring only in south-western Costa Rica and on the Pacific side of Panama. In flight the male shows much white in wing and tail; the female is almost uniformly camouflaged.
Voice
The male's song is a high, thin pt-cheeeeee, the second note long drawn out and rising, dropping slightly at the end. Also rasping calls in flight and thin ticking notes when disturbed.
Recording: Paul Lenrumé — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
20–22 cm, slender, with a fairly long, slightly notched tail. The upperparts are grey-brown with dark spots and streaks, with a rufous collar on the nape. The male has a white throat patch, a white band across the primaries and largely white outer tail feathers, so that the tail looks mostly white from below. The female is darker and browner, with a buff throat and no white in wing and tail.
Confusion species
Pauraque Nyctidromus albicollis is larger, with a longer tail and a white wing band nearer the wing tip; it is much more numerous in the same area. Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor and Lesser Nighthawk Chordeiles acutipennis have pointed wings with a white band midway, a forked tail and hunt high in the air. The female closely resembles females of other small nightjars; habitat and call then help.
Habitat
Open country: grassy savanna, pastures and cattle land with scattered bushes, grassy slopes and rough ground along roads and forest edges. It hunts from the ground or in low flight for insects. The egg is laid without a nest on the ground, often among grass or under a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In Costa Rica mainly in the valleys and lowlands of the south-west, in Puntarenas, with scattered records north to Guanacaste. In Panama on the Pacific side, from Chiriquí and Veraguas east to around Panama City and in Darién. Outside the guide area in northern South America, to the Guianas and northern Brazil, and on Trinidad and Tobago, the ABC Islands and Martinique.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best at dusk along pastures and grassy ground in southern Costa Rica or in the savannas on the Pacific side of Panama, where singing males often call from the ground or a low stone. A torch reveals the eyeshine on roads and tracks.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a large range in South America. In the guide area it is local; it benefits from open grazing land, but nests on the ground, where it is vulnerable to disturbance.
Scientific name
Hydropsalis cayennensis | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Caprimulgus cayennensis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Hydropsalis was introduced in 1832 by Wagler. Hydropsalis is Greek, from hudro- 'water-' and psalis 'pair of scissors', after the scissor-like tail; why 'water' is unclear. cayennensis means 'from Cayenne', after French Guiana, where the type specimen came from. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.