Owlet-nightjar

Owlet-nightjars Temporal range: Early Miocene to present
Barred owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles bennettii)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Clade:	Daedalornithes
Order:	Aegotheliformes Worthy et al., 2007
Family:	Aegothelidae Bonaparte, 1853
Genus:	Aegotheles Vigors & Horsfield, 1827
Type species
Caprimulgus novaehollandiae[1] Latham, 1790
Synonyms
Euaegotheles Mathews, 1918 Megaegotheles Scarlett, 1968

Owlet-nightjars are small crepuscular birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. Most are native to New Guinea, but some species extend to Australia, the Moluccas, and New Caledonia. A flightless species from New Zealand is extinct. There is a single monotypic family Aegothelidae with the genus Aegotheles.

Owlet-nightjars are insectivores which hunt mostly in the air but sometimes on the ground; their soft plumage is a cryptic mixture of browns and paler shades, they have fairly small, weak feet (but larger and stronger than those of a frogmouth or a nightjar), a tiny bill that opens extraordinarily wide, surrounded by prominent whiskers. The wings are short, with 10 primaries and about 11 secondaries; the tail long and rounded.