Buff-collared Nightjar

Overview

Buff-collared Nightjar: Small nightjar, mottled gray-brown upperparts, buff collar that appears lighter on dark throat, pale gray-brown underparts with dark brown bars. Tail is gray-brown with white corners. Legs and feet are black. Flight is silent and bouyant on flicking wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Buff-collared Nightjar: Resident in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico; also in Mexico. Preferred habitats include dry open woodlands, scrub, and thorny forest edges.

INTERESTING FACTS

Active at night, this bird is usually only seen in the daytime when flushed from a hiding spot on the ground or from a nest site on the ground.
The Buff-collared nightjar is named for Robert Ridgway, a pioneering American ornithologist of the 1800s.
They fly with an mouth open to catch insects.

The Buff-collared Nightjar is a terrestrial bird that is native to the United States, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. The range of this bird species is more than 600,000 square kilometers. The population of the Buff-collared Nightjar is estimated to be as many as 5 million individual birds. Currently, there is no immediate concern for this bird. Previously, this bird was rated as Lower Risk. At the current time, the Buff-collared Nightjar has an evaluation of Least Concern.