Breeding

Breeding of Greater Antillean Nightjar is reported March-July on Cuba and the Isle of Youth (Bond 1934, Garrido 1983, Garrido and Kirkconnell 2000), and April-July on Hispaniola (Wetmore and Swales 1932, Raffaele et al. 1998).

The eggs are laid on the ground (Wetmore and Swales 1932, Bond 1934). The clutch size is usually two (Wetmore and Swales 1932, Bond 1934, Garrido 1983). Eggs of the Cuban population are described as "dull white, slightly tinged on one egg with pinkish-buff, and ... indistinctly spotted with brownish or brownish-buff, with rather heavy underlying markings of dull grayish lavender", with dimmensions of 29.9 x 22 and 29.8 x 21.6 mm (Bond 1934); Garrido and Kirkconnell (2000) describe the eggs simply as "grayish-green, spotted with brown". Eggs of the Hispaniolan population are similar: "light greenish white in color spotted with brown" (Wetmore and Swales 1932).

Incubating birds at the nest give an injury-feigning display if approached too closely, as well as shaking its wings and body periodically from a perch (Garrido 1983). Bond (1934) collected a male that he flushed from a nest with two eggs, and Garrido (1983) observed two different individuals attending a nest, strongly suggesting that both sexes incubate. The incubation period on Cuba is ca 19 days (Cleere 1998).