Collared nightjar

"Gactornis" redirects here. For the prehistoric bird, see Gastornis.

The collared nightjar (Gactornis enarratus) is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is endemic to Madagascar.

Collared nightjar
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Order:	Caprimulgiformes
Family:	Caprimulgidae
Genus:	Gactornis Han, Robbins & Braun, M, 2010
Species:	G. enarratus
Binomial name
Gactornis enarratus (Gray, GR, 1871)
Synonyms
Caprimulgus enarratus

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.^[2]

Taxonomy

The collared nightjar was formally described in 1871 by the English zoologist George Gray with the binomial name Caprimulgus enarratus based on a specimen collected in Madagascar.^[3][4] The specific epithet is Latin meaning "explained in detail".^[5]

A molecular phylogenetic study by Kin-Lan Han and collaborators published in 2010 found that the collared nightjar was not closely related to any other species of nightjar. The authors therefore introduced a new genus Gactornis to accommodate the species. The genus name combines the four single letter abbreviations for the DNA nucleotides (G, A, C, T for guanine, adenine, cytosine, thymine) and the Ancient Greek word ornis meaning "bird".^[6] The species in monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[7]