The Common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) is a medium-sized nightjar of open country. It breeds from N Canada to E Panama; winter throughout South America to N Argentina.

24cm (9½”), 65G. With long, pointed wings, notched tail, conspicuous white band across primaries midway between bend and tip. Noticeable white (male) to buffy (female) chevron on throat; head, chest and upperparts blackish, spotted with buff, most heavily on nape; scapulars edged with bright buff; secondaries and tailed barred with gray, pale bars mottled with dusky; white subterminal tail-band on males; primaries blackish, outer 5-6 crossed by a broad white band; posterior underparts pale buff barred with black. Young: Like female but throat patch barred with dusky; above extensive pale gray mottling.

The Common Pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) is the common nightjar of country roads. Found from S Texas to NW Peru and N Argentina.

28cm (11”), 55g. Bright ruby-red eyeshine. Above gray-brown to tawny, palest on crown, finely vermiculated and boldly streaked with black; throat chevron white; scapulars blotched with black and boldly edged with buff; wing coverts spotted with buff; throat and chest barred and vermiculated with black and rusty; belly buff, barred with black.

♂: White band across primaries; outer 2 rectrices black, next 2 mostly white. ♀: Wing-band narrower, often buffy; outer 3 rectrices tipped with white. Young: Below paler; throat chevron buffy; white or buffy in wings and tail like adult of same sex but less extensive and distinct.

The Ocellated Poorwill (Nyctidromus ocellatus) is found in Nicaragua and Costa Rica; NW and C Colombia to NW Ecuador. N Bolivia, SW Brazil, N Argentina, and Paraguay.

20cm (8”), 36g. ♂: Crown gray-brown laterally and posteriorly, black medially, everywhere finely vermiculated with tawny; lateral feathers slightly black, vermiculated with rusty, wing coverts with pale spots at tips; scapulars gray-brown with very fine tawny vermiculations, black spots bordered behind with buff; wings and tail blackish, barred and vermiculated with tawny, all but central rectrices with narrow but conspicuous white tips; throat and facial area blackish, vermiculated with dark rufous; broad white band across lower throat; chest gray-brown with fine tawny vermiculations, forming an “apron”. Posterior underparts blackish with coarser tawny vermiculations, the feathers with bold white terminal spots, passing on lower belly to indistinct pale terminal bars. ♀: similar in pattern except belly less distinctly spotted and general coloration much more rufescent.  Iris dark brown; bill and feet dusky-horn, bill tipped blackish.

The Chuck-Will’s Widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) breeds in SE Canada and E USA; winters from extreme S USA to Colombia and Greater Antilles.

31cm (12¼”), 110g. ♂: Above rich Brown vermiculated with black; crown, nape, and back broadly striped with black; scapulars and wing-coverts spotted with black; face and underparts ochraceous, mottled with black on face and throat, barred and vermiculated with black on breast and belly; breast spotted with buff; buffy-white band across lower throat; inner webs of outer 3 rectrices broadly tipped with white. Bill and feet blackish. ♀: Paler, less rufescent overall; throat-band darker buff; no white in tail.

The Dusky Nightjar (Caprimulgus saturatus) lives in Costa Rica and Panama. It prefers edges and openings in canopy of mountains forests, in highland pastures with tall trees. Adults are 23 cm (9 inches) in height and 55 g in weight.

It has head, chest, and upperparts sooty black, spotted with rufous, belly cinnamon-buff barred with black. Bill black, feet grayish, and tail chestnut barred and mottled with black. This nocturnal bird feeds on flying insects, especially beetles and moths.