The Hispaniolan nightjar (''Antrostomus ekmani'') is a

nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk ta ...

species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

, which is shared by the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

and

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Hispaniolan nightjar was originally described as ''Antrostomus ekmani''; the genus was later lumped into genus ''Caprimulgus'' and still later restored as a separate genus. The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC),

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' (HBW), and the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

consider it a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

species. The

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

(AOS) considers it and the two subspecies of the

Cuban nightjar The Cuban nightjar (''Antrostomus cubanensis''), is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is endemic to Cuba. Taxonomy and systematics The Cuban nightjar was originally described as ''Antrostomus cubanensis''; the genus was l ...

(''A. cubanensis'') to be subspecies of the Greater Antillean nightjar.Weber, D. (2020). Greater Antillean Nightjar (''Antrostomus cubanensis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.granig1.01 retrieved October 15, 2021HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved May 27, 2021Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 The species is named for Swedish naturalist

Erik Leonard Ekman Erik Leonard Ekman was a Swedish botanist and explorer. Biography Erik Leonard Ekman was born into a low-income household with five children on October 14, 1883. Due to economic difficulties, the family moved to the central-Swedish town of Jön ...

, who first described the species in the 19th century.

Description

The Hispaniolan nightjar is long. The upperparts are dark brown speckled with grayish buff, pale buff, and grayish brown, and the crown has broad black streaks. The tail is brown and the three outer pairs of feathers are broadly tipped with white (male) or buff (female). The innermost pair has grayish brown chevrons. The wings are brown with spots, bars, and mottling of lighter shades. The face is tawny with dark brown speckles, the chin and throat dark brown with cinnamon speckles, the breast dark brown with large spots and smaller speckles of buffy white, and the belly and flanks dark brown with gray speckles. The Cuban nightjar subspecies endemic to

Isla de la Juventud Isla de la Juventud (; en, Isle of Youth) is the second-largest Cuban island (after Cuba's mainland) and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies (after mainland Cuba itself, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Andros Islan ...

(''A. cubensis insulaepinorum'') is smaller, much darker, and has a shorter tail than the Hispaniolan nightjar.

Distribution and habitat

The Hispaniolan nighjar is found only on the large island of

. It is much more common in the western third of the

than the eastern part of that country, and is very rare in

to the west of the Dominican Republic. It mostly inhabits broadleaf forests at middle elevations and shuns low elevation thorn scrub and higher elevation pine forest. In elevation it ranges up to about .

Behavior

Feeding

The Hispaniolan nightjar is

crepuscular In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal, vespertine, or both. This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylig ...

and

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

. Its prey is insects that it captures in flight, though whether that is during continuous flight or by sallies from a perch or the ground is not known.

Breeding

The Hispaniolan nightjar breeds between April and July. The usual clutch of two eggs is laid directly on the ground without a nest. Both sexes are believed to incubate the eggs.

Vocalization

The Hispaniolan nightjar's song is "is a rather harsh, buzzy call of one syllable" that starts with a click and rises in pitch. Its apparent disturbance call is "low-pitched, brief calls, paraphrased as ''quat…quat…quat…''".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the Hispaniolan nightjar as being of Least Concern. Though its population is unknown, it is believed to be stable, and no immediate threats have been identified. However, "destruction of habitat undoubtably would affect this species, and introduced predators also are a potential threat."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3054308

Hispaniolan nightjar The Hispaniolan nightjar (''Antrostomus ekmani'') is a nightjar species endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Taxonomy and systematics The Hispaniolan nightjar was originally descri ...

Endemic birds of Hispaniola Endemic birds of the Caribbean Birds of Hispaniola Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of Haiti

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN