White-winged Nightjar - Caprimulgus candicans Eleothreptus candicans Hydropsalis candicans

White-winged Nightjar (Eleothreptus candicans)
(aka Caprimulgus candicans, Hydropsalis candicans)

Male White-winged Nightjar, Emas, Goiás, Brazil, April 2001 - click for a larger image

Emas National Park, Goiás, Brazil
April 2001

The White-winged Nightjar is classified as Endangered. It is believed that there are only a few hundred birds left in Brazil and about fifty in Paraguay (See Cotinga 9, Pages 52-55).

In fact, up until the 1980s the White-winged Nightjar was only known through two museum specimens from the 1820s.

Female White-winged Nightjar, Emas, Goiás, Brazil, April 2001 - click for a larger image

Its habitat of cerrado and "campo limpo" grassland has been almost destroyed by agriculture and eucalyptus plantations. Fortunately Brazil has one or two reserves which are doing their best to preserve some of this habitat with its flora and fauna. Emas National Park in Goiás is where the White-winged Nightjar can be found.

They are reputed to prefer short grasses with termite mounds and this was indeed where we found them. At Emas they maintain corridors of about 30 metres width of lower grasses either side of the dirt roads as fire-breaks and this was where they were.

The first two photos show the different plumages of the male (top photo) and the female (second photo). The third photo shows its splendid white moustache. In flight, the male has white wings and a white tail while the female has dark barring on her tawny-rufous wings and tail.

There are illustrations in HBW, Volume 5, Pages 330 and 352.

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