Lurocalis semitorquatus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The short-tailed nighthawk (Lurocalis semitorquatus) is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country except El Salvador, in Trinidad and Tobago, and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.
The short-tailed nighthawk was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the nightjars in the genus Caprimulgus and coined the binomial name Caprimulgus semitorquatus. Gmelin based his description on "Le petit egoulevent tacheté de Cayenne" that had been described in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. A hand-coloured plate was published separately. The short-tailed nighthawk is now placed with the rufous-bellied nighthawk in the genus Lurocalis that was introduced in 1851 by the American ornithologist John Cassin. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek oura meaning "tail" with kolos meaning "stunted". The specific epithet semitorquatus combines the Latin semi- meaning "half-" or "small" with torquatus... Wikipedia →
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque das Aves | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Short-tailed Nighthawk sighting in Darién National Park on a given day, based on 18 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 265th most-seen of the 397 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Short-tailed Nighthawk in Darién National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to February, the lowest months. That is one of Darién National Park's driest months, with about 160 mm of rain against 450 mm in November.
Between 5 and 8 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Short-tailed Nighthawk sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
6th of 28
Of the 28 parks where we can rate Short-tailed Nighthawk sightings, Darién National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Bastimentos Island National Marine Park (Panama, about 10%), Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 10%) and Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Short-tailed Nighthawk is recorded against all the birds logged in Darién National Park (18 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
