| Owlet-nightjars Temporal range: Early Miocene to present
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|---|---|
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| Barred owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles bennettii) | |
Scientific classification 
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| 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
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| Synonyms | |
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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.
- ^ "Apodidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-08-05.