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Least Poorwill | Siphonorhis brewsteri
Dwergpauraque | Torico
The Least Poorwill is one of the smallest nightjars in the world and occurs only on Hispaniola, including the island of Gonâve. The genus Siphonorhis held a second species, Jamaican Poorwill Siphonorhis americana, which has not been reliably recorded since the late nineteenth century. In the Dominican Republic it is known as torico, after its call.
Voice
The male gives a whistled toorrrree rising in pitch, or a warbled tworree, the source of the name torico. Also short whistled tooreek or to-ik calls and soft, scratchy dove-like sounds.
Recording: Mitch Walters — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
17–21 cm, small and compact, with short, rounded wings and a fairly long tail. Upperparts grey-brown with blackish streaks and white spots on the wing coverts. A broad buff band crosses the hindneck. The throat has a white band; the breast is dark brown with small white spots. The tail feathers have narrow white tips. The subspecies gonavensis of Gonâve is smaller and paler.
Confusion species
Hispaniolan Nightjar Antrostomus ekmani is much larger and darker, with a different call. Antillean Nighthawk Chordeiles gundlachii has long, pointed wings with a white bar and hunts in open flight, also at dusk over open ground. Chuck-will's-widow Antrostomus carolinensis, a winter visitor, is almost twice the size and rufous-brown. Small size, short wings and the pale hindneck band are distinctive.
Habitat
Dry forest and semi-arid limestone woodland with cacti and thorny shrubs, from sea level to about 800 m; locally also moister deciduous forest and the edges of pine forest. It hunts insects at dusk and at night, often in short sallies from the ground or a low branch. Breeding is from April to June; the two eggs are laid without a nest on bare ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Endemic to Hispaniola. In the Dominican Republic in the dry lowlands of the south-west, north-west and centre, extending into adjacent Haiti; also on the Haitian island of Gonâve. The distribution is patchy, following the remaining dry forest. It does not occur outside Hispaniola.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best at dusk in dry forest in the south-west of the Dominican Republic, for example around Puerto Escondido and Rabo de Gato on the northern edge of the Sierra de Bahoruco. The call is the best clue; birds often perch on low branches or sit on tracks and roads.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The population is estimated at fewer than 15,000 mature birds and is declining through clearance of dry forest, partly for charcoal and farming, and through predation by introduced mongooses and rats on this ground-nester.
Scientific name
Siphonorhis brewsteri | (Chapman, 1917)
Chapman described the species in 1917 as Microsiphonorhis brewsteri; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Siphonorhis was introduced in 1861 by Sclater. Siphonorhis is Greek, from siphōn 'tube' and rhis, rhinos 'nose', after the tubular nostrils. brewsteri honours the American ornithologist William Brewster (1851–1919). The specimen the first description was based on came from Túbano, Azua Province, Dominican Republic.