It is fairly small at 20 cm (8") and is very dark. The narrow white collar on the lower throat tends to be smaller in the female and the female also lacks the white tips on the outer tail feathers shown by the male.

Photo 5 shows a bird that had just left its nest. Blackish Nightjar do not build a nest but lay their single egg on bare ground, leaf litter or a depression in granite rock. It fledges after about 14 days and this bird was fluttering around the lodge building at Cristalino closely watched by a parent, probably the female, shown here in photo 4.