Least Nighthawk

About the Least Nighthawk

The least nighthawk (Chordeiles pusillus) is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. The least nighthawk was formally described in 1861 by the English ornithologist John Gould based on a specimen collected in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Gould coined the current binomial name Chordeiles pusillus. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "tiny" or "very small". Early in the 20th century the least nighthawk was assigned to its own genus, Nannochordeiles, but since the middle of the century has been included in Chordeiles.

Six subspecies are recognised: C. p. septentrionalis (Hellmayr, 1908) – east Colombia through Venezuela and the Guianas C. p. esmeraldae Zimmer, JT & Phelps, WH, 1947 – southeast Colombia, south Venezuela and northwest Brazil

C. p. xerophilus Dickerman, 1988 – Paraíba and Pernambuco (northeast Brazil) C. p. novaesi Dickerman, 1988 – Maranhão and Piauí (northeast Brazil) C. p. saturatus Pinto & Camargo, 1957 – east Bolivia and central west Brazil

C. p. pusillus Gould, 1861 – Tocantins, Bahia and Goiás (east Brazil) Two specimens from northeastern Argentina might... Wikipedia →