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Caprimulgiformes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves (unranked) Cypselomorphae Order: Caprimulgiformes Ridgway, 1881
Families
see text

The Caprimulgiformes is an order of birds that includes a number of birds with global distribution (except Antarctica). They are generally insectivorous and nocturnal.

The order gets its name from the Latin for goatsucker, an old name based on an erroneous view of the European Nightjar's feeding habits.

The classification of the various birds that make up the order has long been controversial and difficult, particularly in the case of the nightjars.

Traditionally, they were regarded, on morphological grounds, as being midway between the owls (Strigiformes) and the swifts. Like the owls, they are nocturnal hunters with a highly developed sense of sight, and like the swifts they are excellent flyers with small, weak legs. At one time or another, they have allied with owls, swifts, kingfishers, hoopoes, mousebirds, hornbills, rollers, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, trogons and hummingbirds.

The Aegothelidae (owlet-nightjars) with about a dozen living species in one genus are, according to recent research, closer to the Apodiformes; these and the Caprimulgiformes are closely related, being grouped together as Cypselomorphae. The oilbird and the frogmouths seem quite distinct among the remaining Caprimulgiformes.

Based on β-fibrinogen intron 7 (FGB-int7) sequence data, Fain & Houde (2004) consider the families of the Caprimulgiformes strewn across the proposed clade Metaves, which also includes the hoatzin, tropicbirds, sandgrouse, pigeons, kagu, sunbittern, mesites, flamingos, grebes and swifts and hummingbirds. However, their study fails to recover any sensible grouping of the cypselomorph taxa. Nighthawks appear as a sister clade to flamingos, while frogmouths group with doves, and owlet-nightjars with mesites; the Apodiformes are placed as sister clade of the tropicbirds. The overwhelming weight of evidence - molecular, morphological, paleontological, and biogeographical - indicates that in a cladistic analysis that is not flawed, the cypselomorph taxa should group in a close bunch with high confidence. It is apparent that the "Metornithes" are with near certainty a paraphyletic bogus "clade" united by molecular homoplasies - especially given the fact that the Coronaves, Fain & Houde's other group of Neoaves, agrees with the emerging consensus as regards its internal structure.

All things considered, the nightjar order would probably best be limited to potoos, nightjars, and eared-nightjars, all other lineages being elevated to order level.(Mayr, 2002) Alternatively, Mayr's phylogenetic taxon Cypselomorphae might be placed at order rank and substitute the two present orders Caprimulgiformes and Apodiformes. Such a group would be fairly uninformative as regards its evolutionary history, as it has to include some very plesiomorphic and some extremely derived lineages to achieve monophyly.

• Family Steatornithidae (Oilbird) - probably distinct order N.N. ("Steatornithioformes"^[1])
• Family Podargidae (frogmouths, 12 species in 2 genera) - probably distinct order Podargiformes
• Family Nyctibiidae (Potoos, about 5 species in 1 genus)
• Family Caprimulgidae
  • Subfamily Chordeilinae (New World nighthawks)
  • Subfamily Caprimulginae (typical nightjars)
• Family Eurostopodidae (eared-nightjars)

• Fain, Matthew G. & Houde, Peter (2004): Parallel radiations in the primary clades of birds. Evolution 58(11): 2558-2573. DOI:10.1554/04-235 PDF fulltext

• Mayr, G. (2002): Osteological evidence for paraphyly of the avian order Caprimulgiformes (nightjars and allies). Journal für Ornithologie 143(1): 82–97. DOI:10.1046/j.1439-0361.2002.01030.x HTML abstract

1. ^ Apparently not a valid taxon (yet), and thus it must not be written without quotation marks.