Order
Caprimulgiformes
Family
Caprimulgidae
Genus
Hydropsalis
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Ladder-tailed Nightjar Hydropsalis climacocerca

Maria Smith
Version: 1.0 — Published February 6, 2015

Systematics

Geographic Variation

Five subspecies currently recognized (Dickinson and Remsen 2013), although geographic variation is slight (Cleere 1998):

schomburgki, described as Hydropsalis schomburgki Sclater 1866; type locality British Guiana

Occurs in eastern Venezuela, Guiana, Surimame, and French Guiana.

Similar to nominate climacocerca, but darker and browner, and slightly smaller (Cleere 1998).

climacocerca, described as Caprimulgus climacocerca Tschudi 1844; type locality Peru

Occupies the greater part of the range of the species, from Colombia south to Bolivia, and east to southern Venezuela, Brazil north of the Amazon (south of the range of schomburgki), and Brazil south of the Amazon (east to western Pará).

See Detailed Description.

pallidior, described as Hydropsalis climacocerca pallidior Todd 1937; type locality Santarem, Brazil

Known only from the type locality.

Similar to canescens, but the male is "paler, more grayish above, with less rusty-buff color intermixed; the dark markings both above and below less distinct; and the white areas on the wings and tail averaging more extended" (Todd 1937).

intercedens, described as Hydropsalis climacocerca intercedens Todd 1937; type locality Islands in the Amazon River, opposite Obidos, Brazil

Known from the type locality.

Intermediate between canescens and schomburgki. It is "darker above and below than the former; lighter-colored than the latter". This subspecies has more white on the outer rectrices than schomburgki, and the short rectrices of intercedens are "pure white at the base instead of black", as in schomburgki. Female specimens of canescens and intercedens are very similar to each other but differ from the darker female schomburgki (Todd 1937).

canescens, described as Hydropsalis climacocerca canescens Griscom and Greenway 1937; type locality Lago Grande, south bank of the Amazon, west of the Rio Tapajós, Brazil

Known only from the type locality.

Similar to nominate climacocerca, but the adult male is notably paler and grayer above, less buffy and white below. The spotting on the wings is pure white, instead of buffy or rusty. Black streaking on the top of the head is narrower. Adult female is slightly paler below with the light bars on all but the outermost rectrices paler, grayer, and less buffy (Griscom and Greenway 1937).

Subspecies pallidior, intercedens, and canescens all occur very near one another on the lower Amazon River in Brazil, and doubts long have been expressed three different taxa occur in such a small region (Peters 1940, Cleere 1998); but the validity of these taxa still has not been critically reviewed.

Subspecies

Related Species

The genus Hydropsalis currently includes four species: Hydropsalis climacocerca, Hydropsalis torquata (Scissor-tailed Nightjar), Hydropsalis maculicaudus (Spot-tailed Nightjar), and Hydropsalis cayennensis (White-tailed Nightjar). Phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence data, from both mitochondrial and nuclear genes, indicate that climacocerca and torquata are sister taxa, and that cayennensis is sister to these two (Han et al. 2010, Sigurdsson and Cracraft 2014).

Recommended Citation

Smith, M. (2015). Ladder-tailed Nightjar (Hydropsalis climacocerca), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.latnig1.01