Scissor-tailed Nightjar

About the Scissor-tailed Nightjar

The scissor-tailed nightjar (Hydropsalis torquata) is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is distributed over much of eastern South America. The scissor-tailed nightjar was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other nightjars in the genus Caprimulgus and coined the binomial name Caprimulgus torquatus. The scissor-tailed nightjar is now placed with three other species in the genus Hydropsalis that was introduced in 1832 by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek hudro- meaning "water-" with psalis meaning "pair of scissors". The specific epithet torquata is from Latin torquatus meaning "collared".

Two subspecies are recognised: H. t. torquata (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – south Suriname, Brazil and east Peru H. t. furcifer (Vieillot, 1817) – south Peru to south Brazil and central Argentina The specific epithet brasiliana or brasilianus was formerly sometimes used.

The most distinctive feature of the scissor-tailed nightjar is the male's elongated outer tail feathers... Wikipedia →