Nighthawk

Subfamily of birds

This article is about the bird. For the plane, see Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. For other uses, see Nighthawk (disambiguation).

Nighthawk

Common nighthawk, Chordeiles minor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Aves
Clade:  | Strisores
Order:  | Caprimulgiformes
Family:  | Caprimulgidae
Subfamily:  | Chordeilinae
Genera

* Chordeiles
* Lurocalis
* Nyctiprogne

Nighthawks are ten New World species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae.

The nightjar family Caprimulgidae has been traditionally divided into two subfamilies, Chordeilinae containing the nighthawks in four genera, and Caprimulginae containing all the remaining species.[1] The subfamily Chordeilinae had been introduced in 1851 by the American ornithologist John Cassin.[2][3] The nighthawks were placed in four genera: Chordeiles Swainson, 1832 containing five species, Lurocalis Cassin, 1851 containing two species, Podager Wagler, 1832 containing the nacunda nighthawk, and Nyctiprogne Bonaparte, 1857 containing two species. The nighthawks have short bills and generally lack the elongated rictal bristles that are present in other nightjars. They also tend to be less nocturnal that other nightjars and can be observed feeding at dawn and at dusk.[1] Beginning in 2010 molecular phylogenetic studies have found that the nacunda nighthawk in the monotypic genus Podager was embedded with members of the genus Chordeiles and that the three remaining genera were not closely related to one another making the subfamily Chordeilinae non-monophyletic.[4][5][6]

Image  | Genus  | Living species

|
|

| Nyctiprogne Bonaparte, 1857 |

* Band-tailed nighthawk, Nyctiprogne leucopyga
* Plain-tailed nighthawk, Nyctiprogne vielliardi

| Lurocalis Cassin, 1851 |

* Rufous-bellied nighthawk Lurocalis rufiventris
* Short-tailed nighthawk, Lurocalis semitorquatus

| Chordeiles Swainson, 1832 |

* Nacunda nighthawk, Chordeiles nacunda
* Antillean nighthawk, Chordeiles gundlachii
* Lesser nighthawk, Chordeiles acutipennis
* Common nighthawk, Chordeiles minor
* Least nighthawk, Chordeiles pusillus
* Sand-colored nighthawk, Chordeiles rupestris

## Discovery

[edit]

It is believed that the term "nighthawk", first recorded in the King James Bible of 1611, was originally a local name in England for the European nightjar.[7] Its use in the Americas to refer to members of the genus Chordeiles and related genera was first recorded in 1778 when John Cassin, a renowned ornithologist responsible for the establishment of the Delaware County Institute of Science, established the classification.[7][8] Fossil records indicate that specimens later identified to be the common nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) excavated in the Southwestern US could be traced back as far as 400,000 years (during the Pleistocene era) meaning that the subfamily has been an entrenched component of new world ecology for a significant duration of time.[9]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Cleere, N. (1999). "Family Caprimulgidae (Nightjars)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 302-387 [302-303]. ISBN 978-84-87334-25-2.
2. ^ Cassin, John (1851). "Catalogue of the Caprimulgidae in the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 5, Supplement. Unpaginated.
3. ^ Bock, Walter J. (1994). History and Nomenclature of Avian Family-Group Names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 222\. New York: American Museum of Natural History. pp. 114, 232.
4. ^ Han, K.-L.; Robbins, M.B.; Braun, M.J. (2010). "A multi-gene estimate of phylogeny in the nightjars and nighthawks (Caprimulgidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 55 (2): 443–453\. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.01.023.
5. ^ McCullough, J.M.; DeCicco, L.H.; Boseto, D.; Moyle, R.G.; Andersen, M.J. (2025). "What is an eared nightjar? Ultraconserved elements clarify the evolutionary relationships of Eurostopodus and Lyncornis nightjars (Aves: Caprimulgidae)". Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists. 4 (1). doi:10.18061/bssb.v4i1.10183.
6. ^ Costa, T.V.V.; van Els, P.; Braun, M.J.; Whitney, B.M.; Cleere, N.; Sigurosson, S.; Silveira, L.F. (2023). "Systematic revision and generic classification of a clade of New World nightjars (Caprimulgidae), with descriptions of new genera from South America". Avian Systematics. 1 (6): 55–99.
7. ^ a b "Nighthawk". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
8. ^ "The People Behind the Birds Named for People: John Cassin". All About Birds. 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
9. ^ "Common Nighthawk Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2024-10-21.

Taxon identifiers

Chordeilinae|

* Wikidata: Q945260
* Wikispecies: Chordeilinae
* ITIS: 686638
* NCBI: 48287