A new record of the endangered White-winged nightjar (Eleothreptus candicans) from Beni, Bolivia.

Publication: Wilson Bulletin

Publication Date: 01-MAR-06

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The White-winged Nightjar (Eleothreptus candicans), a member of the Caprimulgidae (Cleere 1999, Pople 2004), was recently reclassified from the genus Caprimulgus to the genus Eleothreptus (Cleere 2002). Its known range and population size are very small, and its ecology has received attention only recently (Pople 2003). Parker et al. (1996) assigned the species High Conservation Priority and the IUCN lists the species as Endangered (IUCN Red List; Pople 2004). E. candicans is threatened by ongoing loss of its cerrado habitat (heavy grazing, trampling, invasive grasses, habitat conversion to plantations, and large-scale, uncontrolled grass fires; Cleere 1999, Pople 2004).

Until the 1980s, White-winged Nightjars were known only from two museum specimens collected at the beginning of the 19th century in Oricanga, Sao Paulo state, and Cuiaba, Mato Grosso state, Brazil (Sclater 1866). Only three populations have been found, all in southern Brazil and eastern Paraguay: Emas National Park, Brazil (Rodrigues et al. 1999); Aguara Nu, Mbaracayu Forest Nature Reserve, Paraguay (Lowen et al. 1996, Clay et al. 1998); and a recently discovered population at Laguna Blanca, Departmento San Pedro, central Paraguay (Anonymous 2002). Additionally, in 1987 a single male was captured and collected at the Beni Biological Station, Departmento Beni, Bolivia (Davis and Flores 1994). Despite specific searches for the species in subsequent years, however, it has not been relocated at Beni (Brace et al. 1997, Brace 2000, Pople 2004; R....

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