Other Scientific Names
Hydropsalis brasiliana [Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993)], Hydropsalis brasiliana [Stotz et al. (1996)], Hydropsalis brasiliana [BirdLife International (2004)]
Habitat
Subtropical and tropical seasonally wet / flooded grassland, dry savanna, subtropical and tropical heavily degraded former forest. From sea-level - 500 m.
Scissor-tailed Nightjar (Hydropsalis torquata) [XC51587]
by Bernabe Lopez-Lanus from Punta del Este, Maldonado, Uruguay (song)
Scissor-tailed Nightjar (Hydropsalis torquata) [XC196383]
by Breno Dias Vitorino from Trairi, Trairi, Ceara, Brazil (song)
Subspecies
Species name has normally been given as brasiliana, but this name is based on a drawing and a written description, and is not clearly identifiable as present species, indeed some points would appear to preclude this. Torquata, proposed by same author on the following page of the same publication, was consistently used in Brazilian literature until 1966, and should be reinstated.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
torquata (Gmelin, 1789) - Southern Surinam, east-central Peru and Brazil.
furcifer (Vieillot, 1817) - Northern and eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay, northern and central Argentina and Uruguay.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet