All species › Nightjars › Nightjars and nighthawks › Choco Poorwill
Choco Poorwill | Nyctiphrynus rosenbergi
Chocónachtzwaluw | Chotacabras del Chocó | Bacurau-do-chocó
The Choco Poorwill is a small, very dark nightjar found only in the wet Chocó rainforest of western Colombia and north-western Ecuador. It is the western counterpart of the Ocellated Poorwill. At dusk several birds often call at the same time.
Voice
A series of short, round, somewhat rolling calls, repeated at intervals from a perch in the forest or at the forest edge, mainly at dusk and in moonlight; several birds often answer one another.
Recording: rudy gelis — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
20–21 cm, with a fairly short, rounded tail. The plumage is blackish brown, finely speckled with rufous and buff, with black, pale-edged spots on the wing-coverts and a distinct white band across the throat. The outer tail feathers have broad white tips, which show as white tail corners in flight. The female resembles the male, but the white tail tips are smaller.
Confusion species
Pauraque Nyctidromus albicollis is larger and paler, with a longer tail, a white wing band and rufous ear-coverts, and lives at forest edges and in open country. Ocellated Poorwill Nyctiphrynus ocellatus is very similar, but has narrower white tail tips and lives only east of the Andes. Short-tailed Nighthawk Lurocalis semitorquatus has long, pointed wings and hunts above the canopy.
Habitat
Humid and very wet rainforest of the lowlands and foothills, especially forest edges, clearings, forest trails and young secondary growth next to old forest, mostly below 900 m. It catches insects in short sallies from low branches. By day it rests on the forest floor; the eggs are laid without a nest on the ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Pacific lowlands and the foothills of the Western Andes, from Chocó south to Nariño. In Ecuador in the north-west, mainly in Esmeraldas and adjacent parts of the western slope. Absent east of the Andes, from Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Not known outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen at dusk along forest edges and clearings in the Chocó lowlands, for example along roads in Esmeraldas or in the Pacific lowlands of Colombia. Calling birds often sit low on a branch at the forest edge.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Its range is limited to the Chocó, where clearance for logging, farming and oil palm reduces its habitat.
Scientific name
Nyctiphrynus rosenbergi | (Hartert, 1895)
Hartert described the species in 1895 as Caprimulgus rosenbergi; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Nyctiphrynus was introduced in 1857 by Bonaparte. The genus name comes from Greek nukti-, 'night-', and phrunē, 'toad'. The species name honours William Frederick Henry Rosenberg (1868–1957), British natural history dealer and collector in tropical America. The specimen the first description was based on came from Río Dagua, Colombia.