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Tschudi's Nightjar | Quechuavis decussata
Tschudi's nachtzwaluw | Chotacabras de Tschudi | Bacurau-de-tschudi
Tschudi's Nightjar is the small, grey nightjar of the arid coast of Peru. It was long treated as a subspecies of Band-winged Nightjar. The species is named after the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi, who travelled through Peru in the 19th century. It also occurs in cities, including Lima.
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Voice
The song is a loud run of distinct, slightly buzzy notes like cueeo, mainly at dusk and at night. The alarm call is a slightly squeaky wick.
No recording with a suitable Creative Commons licence is available for this species yet.
Identification
20–21 cm. Mostly grey-brown flecked with black, with a broad tawny to cinnamon collar on the hindneck and a small white throat patch. The male has a white band across the wing and white bands and tips in the tail. The female has a buff throat and a buff wing band; the tail usually lacks white.
Confusion species
Band-winged Nightjar Systellura longirostris is larger and darker and lives in the Andes, usually above 1500 m. Anthony's Nightjar Nyctidromus anthonyi is slightly smaller, lives mainly in dry scrub in the north-west and has a different song. Lesser Nighthawk Chordeiles acutipennis has long, pointed wings without a nuchal collar and often hunts in long flights over open ground and water.
Habitat
Arid coastal plains and low foothills: open ground, desert edges, scrub, clearings and woodland edges, irrigated valleys and urban areas. In Peru from sea level to about 1300 m. It hunts flying insects at night. The eggs are laid without a nest on bare ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru along the Pacific coast and on the lower western slopes of the Andes. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area only in the extreme north of Chile, where it has been reported up to 3350 m.
How and when to look
Search at dusk along field edges, river valleys and waste ground on the coast, also on the outskirts of Lima. Singing birds often sit on the ground.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species also occurs in farmland and built-up areas.
Scientific name
Quechuavis decussata | (Tschudi, 1844)
Tschudi described the species in 1844 as Caprimulgus decussatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Quechuavis was introduced in 2023 by Van Els, Costa, Braun, Whitney, Cleere, Sigurðsson & Silveira. The genus name combines Quechua, the Indigenous people of the Andes, with Latin avis, 'bird'; the genus was erected in 2023 by Thiago Costa and co-workers. The species name is Latin for 'marked with crosses', from decussis, 'ten' (X in Roman numerals). The specimen the first description was based on came from Peru.