Owlet-nightjar
| Owlet-nightjars Temporal range: Early Miocene to present
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Barred owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles bennettii) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Strisores |
| Clade: | Daedalornithes |
| Order: | Aegotheliformes Worthy et al., 2007 |
| Family: | Aegothelidae Bonaparte, 1853 |
| Genus: | Aegotheles Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 |
| Type species | |
| Caprimulgus novaehollandiae[1] Latham, 1790
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Owlet-nightjars are small
Owlet-nightjars are insectivores which hunt mostly in the air but sometimes on the ground; their soft plumage is a cryptic mixture of browns and paler shades, they have fairly small, weak feet (but larger and stronger than those of a frogmouth or a nightjar), a tiny bill that opens extraordinarily wide, surrounded by prominent whiskers. The wings are short, with 10 primaries and about 11 secondaries; the tail long and rounded.
Systematics
A comprehensive 2003 study
The relationship between the owlet-nightjars and the (traditional)
In form and habits, however, they are very similar to both caprimulgiform group – or, at first glance, to small
Owlet-nightjars are an exclusively Australasian group, but close relatives apparently thrived all over Eurasia in the late Paleogene.
Taxonomy
| Phylogeny of Aegothelidae[5] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Family Aegothelidae[6]
- Genus Quipollornis Rich & McEvey 1977 (Early/Middle Miocene of New South Wales)
- †Quipollornis koniberi Rich & McEvey 1977
- Genus Aegotheles
- †prehistoric; formerly Megaegotheles)
- New Caledonian owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles savesi Layard & Layard 1881
- Feline owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles insignis Salvadori 1876
- Starry owlet-nightjar or spangled owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles tatei Rand 1941
- Moluccan owlet-nightjar or long-whiskered owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles crinifrons (Bonaparte 1850)
- Australian owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles cristatus (Shaw 1790)
- A. c. cristatus (Shaw 1790)
- A. c. tasmanicus Mathews 1918
- Vogelkop owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles affinis Salvadori 1876
- Barred owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles bennettii Salvadori & Albertis 1875
- A. b. bennettii Salvadori & Albertis 1875
- A. b. plumifer Ramsay 1883
- A. b. terborghi Diamond 1967
- A. b. wiedenfeldi Laubmann 1914
- Wallace's owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles wallacii Gray 1859
- A. w. gigas Rothschild 1931
- A. w. manni Diamond 1969
- A. w. wallacii Gray 1859
- Mountain owlet-nightjar, Aegotheles albertisi Sclater 1874
- A. a. albertisi Sclater 1874 (Arfak owlet-nightjar)
- A. a. wondiwoi Mayr & Rand 1936
- A. a. salvadorii (Hartert 1892) (Salvadori's owlet-nightjar)
- †
A
Footnotes
- ^ "Apodidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
- ^ Dumbacher et al. (2003)
- ^ Mayr (2002)
- ^ Simonetta (1967)
- ^ Boyd, John (2007). "STRISORES II- Apodiformes". John Boyd's website. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- IOC World Bird List. v8.1. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ Worthy et al. (2007)
- S2CID 247993690.
References
- Dumbacher, John P. ; Pratt, Thane K. & Fleischer, Robert C. (2003): Phylogeny of the owlet-nightjars (Aves: Aegothelidae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequence.
- Mayr, Gerald (2002): Osteological evidence for paraphyly of the avian order Caprimulgiformes (nightjars and allies).
- Simonetta, A.M. (1967): Cinesi e morfologia del cranio negli Uccelli non passeriformi. Studio su varie tendenze evolutive. Part II – Striges, Caprimulgiformes ed Apodiformes ["Cranial kinesis and morphology of non-passerine birds. Study of various evolutionary tendencies. Part II – Striges, Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes"]. [In Italian[verification needed]] Archivio Zoologico Italiano 52: 1–35.
- (HTML abstract)