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Caprimulgiformes
Family
Caprimulgidae
Genus
Eurostopodus
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- Archbold's Nightjar
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- Archbold's Nightjar
- Archbold's Nightjar
- Archbold's Nightjar
- Archbold's Nightjar
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- Archbold's Nightjar

Archbold's Nightjar Eurostopodus archboldi Scientific name definitions

Nigel Cleere
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 1999

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

26–30 cm; 1 male 74 g, 1 unsexed c. 80 g. Sexes similar. Upperparts darkish brown spotted buff and greyish-white, crown often greyish-brown broadly streaked blackish-brown; indistinct pale greyish-brown nuchal collar; wing-coverts brown spotted ­cinnamon, buff and tawny; scapulars greyish-brown on upper half (not always visible) and blackish-brown distally, with cinnamon or buff spots on tips; underparts brown spotted buff or whitish, becoming buffish barred brown on belly and flanks. Both sexes have brown, unmarked wings; male has tail narrowly tipped greyish-white, female has buffish tips. Iris dark brown, bill blackish, legs and feet brownish or dark grey. Juvenile generally white with blackish spots on upperparts.

Systematics History

This species and E. papuensis formerly placed in genus Lyncornis. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Highlands of New Guinea.

Habitat

Montane forest with clearings and open areas of heath, at 1800–3225 m.

Movement

None documented. Possibly sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Diet includes moths, beetles, bugs and cicadas. Forages in flight, hunting in forest clearings and openings, or over grassy plains close to forest edges. Also forages by making short flycatching sallies from perches.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song of male is possibly a short, trilled “tchrrrt”; alarm calls of adult at nest are soft, liquid trills; when agitated, makes guttural hissing sounds.

Breeding

Poorly known. Breeds Oct to early Dec throughout range. Nest-site on ground, or on bank or narrow ridge 1–1·5 m above ground; no nest, egg laid on leaf litter. Clutch 1 egg, white and unmarked; adults threatened at nest-site may perform distraction display.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Restricted-range species: present in West Papuan Highlands EBA, Adelbert and Huon Ranges EBA and Central Papuan Mountains EBA. Widely distributed in suitable habitat at high altitudes, but generally considered rare or uncommon, though possibly under-recorded.
Distribution of the Archbold's Nightjar - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Archbold's Nightjar

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Cleere, N. (2020). Archbold's Nightjar (Eurostopodus archboldi), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.arcnig1.01
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