Australian owlet-nightjar

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Australian owlet-nightjar
Australian owlet-nightjar A22I9928.jpg
In New South Wales
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Strisores
Order: Aegotheliformes
Family: Aegothelidae
Genus: Aegotheles
Species:
A. cristatus
Binomial name
Aegotheles cristatus
(Shaw, 1790)
Australian Owlet-nightjar ebird data map.png
Global range
  Year-Round Range
  Summer Range
  Winter Range

The Australian owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus) is a nocturnal bird found in open woodland across Australia and in southern New Guinea. It is colloquially known as the moth owl. It is the most common nocturnal bird in Australia. Despite suffering from predation and competition by introduced species it is not considered threatened. [1]

Contents

Taxonomy

The Australian owlet-nightjar was formally described as Caprimulgus cristatus in 1790 by the English naturalist George Shaw based on a specimen collected in New South Wales, Australia. [2] The species was described in the same year by John Latham as Caprimulgus novaehollandiae but Shaw's account is believed to be earlier and thus has precedence. [3] [4] The Australian owlet-nightjar is now one of ten species placed in the genus Aegotheles that was introduced in 1827 by the naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield. [5] It is the type species of the genus. [6] The specific epithet cristatus is Latin meaning "crested", "plumed" or "tufted". [7]

Two subspecies are recognised: [5]

Description and habitats

Australian owlet-nightjar mainly nests in tree hollows. Aegotheles chrisoptus - Catlereigh Nature Reserve.jpg
Australian owlet-nightjar mainly nests in tree hollows.

The Australian owlet-nightjar is a small to medium-sized owlet-nightjar with grey upperparts and a white, barred front and a distinct dark and pale patterning on the head. In the north of Australia females can also have a rufous morph. The plumage is overall paler in desert populations. Australian owlet-nightjars are adapted to live in open woodland, with more pointed wings and larger feet, unlike most of the rest of the family that live in dense forest (though some individuals of this species can and do live in such habitat in Queensland and New Guinea). It lives in a variety of habitats in addition to open woodland, including mangrove swamps, grasslands, mallee scrub and dense forest. [8]

Behavior

The Australian owlet-nightjar feeds at night by diving from perches and snatching insects from the air, ground or off trunks and branches, in the manner of a flycatcher. It may also feed on the wing. It feeds on most insects, particularly beetles, grasshoppers and ants. During the day they roost in hollows in trees, partly for protection from predators and partly to avoid being mobbed by other birds that mistake them for owls. [8]

The Australian owlet-nightjar nests mainly in holes in trees (or in other holes and crevices), which is provisioned with leaves by both of the pair. It is thought that the frequent addition of eucalyptus leaves is because they act as a beneficial insecticide. Three or four eggs are laid, and incubated by the female for just under a month. Both the adults feed the chicks, which fledge after a month. The young birds are reported to stay close to the parents for several months after they fledge. [8]

The species is itself prey to another nocturnal carnivore, Macroderma gigas , a larger microchiropteran known as the ghost bat. [9]

References

  1. 1 2 BirdLife International. (2016). "Aegotheles cristatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016 e.T22689555A93236849. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22689555A93236849.en .
  2. ↑ Shaw, George (1790). White, John (ed.). Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales : with sixty-five plates of nondescript animals, birds, lizards, serpents, curious cones of trees and other natural productions. London: Printed for J. Debrett. p. 241 Supp. For Shaw as author of the specific name see: Sherborn, C. Davies (1891). "Note on the authors of the specific names in John White's 'Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales', 1790". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History including Zoology, Botany, and Geology. 6th series. 7: 535. doi:10.1080/00222939109460662.
  3. ↑ Latham, John (1790). Index Ornithologicus, Sive Systema Ornithologiae: Complectens Avium Divisionem In Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Ipsarumque Varietates (in Latin). Vol. 2. London: Leigh & Sotheby. p. 588.
  4. ↑ Hemming, Francis, ed. (1956). "Report by the Secretary on the relative dates of publication of the names Caprimulgus novaehollandiae Latham and Caprimulgus cristatus Shaw in White, both currently treated as having been published in 1790". Opinions and Declarations Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Vol. 1 Section D. London: International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature. pp. 204–206.
  5. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Owlet-nightjars, treeswifts, swifts". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  6. ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1940). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 4. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 181.
  7. ↑ Jobling, James A. "cristatus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Holyoak, D.T. (1999). "Family Aegothelidae (Owlet-nightjars)" . In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 252-265 [264]. ISBN   978-84-87334-25-2.
  9. ↑ Boles, W. (June 1999). "Avian prey of the Australian Ghost Bat Macroderma gigas (Microchiroptera: Megadermatidae): prey characteristics and damage from predation". Australian Zoologist. 31 (1): 82–91. doi: 10.7882/AZ.1999.009 .

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