Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats, or bugeaters, their primary source of food being insects. Some New World species are called nighthawks. The English word "nightjar" originally referred to the European nightjar.
The Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy is a bird taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon E. Ahlquist. It is based on DNA–DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
The oilbird, locally known as the guácharo, is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus Steatornis, the family Steatornithidae, and the order Steatornithiformes. Nesting in colonies in caves, oilbirds are nocturnal feeders on the fruits of the oil palm and tropical laurels. They are the only nocturnal flying fruit-eating birds in the world. They forage at night, with specially adapted eyesight. However, they navigate by echolocation in the same way as bats, one of the few birds to do so. They produce a high-pitched clicking sound of around 2 kHz that is audible to humans.
The frogmouths (Podargidae) are a group of nocturnal birds related to owlet-nightjars, swifts, and hummingbirds. Species in the group are distributed in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms.
The common potoo, or poor-me-ones, or urutau is one of seven species of birds within the genus Nyctibius. It is notable for its large, yellow eyes and a wide mouth. Potoos are nocturnal and are related to nightjars and frogmouths. They lack the characteristic bristles around the mouths of true nightjars.
Nyctibius is a genus of potoos, nocturnal birds in the family Nyctibiidae.
The chuck-will's-widow is a nocturnal bird of the nightjar family Caprimulgidae. It is mostly found in the southeastern United States near swamps, rocky uplands, and pine woods. It migrates to the West Indies, Central America, and northwestern South America.
The great potoo or grand potoo is the largest potoo species and is widely distributed in Central and South America.
The eared nightjars are a small group of nocturnal birds in the nightjar family, although the taxonomy is uncertain. There are seven species, mainly found in forest and scrub from China to Australia. Five species are placed in the genus Eurostopodus, the other two species in Lyncornis. They are long winged birds with plumage patterned with grey and brown to camouflage them when resting on the ground. They feed on insects caught in flight. A single white egg is laid directly on the ground and incubated by both adults. The chicks can walk soon after hatching.
The white-tailed nightjar is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in the tropic regions of Central and South America.
The long-tailed potoo is a species of bird in the family Nyctibiidae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.
The rufous potoo is a species of bird in the family Nyctibiidae. It is the only member of the genus Phyllaemulor. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Suriname Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela.
The white-winged potoo is a species of bird in the family Nyctibiidae. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The Andean potoo is a species of bird in the family Nyctibiidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
The northern potoo is a nocturnal bird belonging to the potoo family, Nyctibiidae. It is found from Mexico south to Costa Rica, and on the islands of Jamaica and Hispaniola. It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the common potoo but is now usually treated as a separate species based on differences in vocalizations.
Antrostomus is a genus of nightjars formerly included in the genus Caprimulgus. They are medium-sized nocturnal birds with long pointed wings, short legs and short bills.
Paraprefica is an extinct genus of potoo from the middle Eocene. Its fossil remains have been found in the Messel pit at Messel, Germany.
Strisores, sometimes called nightbirds, is a clade of birds that includes the living families and orders Caprimulgidae, Nyctibiidae (potoos), Steatornithidae (oilbirds), Podargidae (frogmouths), Apodiformes, as well as the Aegotheliformes (owlet-nightjars) whose distinctness was only recently realized. The Apodiformes and the Aegotheliformes form the Daedalornithes.
Lyncornis is a genus of eared nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae.
Vanescaves is a probable clade of strisorean birds that include the clades Steatornithiformes, Nyctibiiformes, Podargiformes (frogmouths), and Apodimorphae. Some molecular studies do support the grouping of these birds, others offer conflicting positions of the non-apodimorphaean strisoreans. In 2019 the authors Chen et al. performed a combined analysis using 2289 ultra-conserved elements [UCEs], 117 morphological characters from extant and fossil taxa found support in this clade. The authors then proposed to name this group, which its meaning is Latin for "vanish birds" in reference to the disparate nature of their geographic distribution, as well as to the poem "A Route of Evanescence" by the American poet Emily Dickinson which features a hummingbird as the main subject. In 2020 Chen & Field named the two major subclades of this group, with Sedentaves and Letornithes for their crown-groups.
