Critically Endangered
New Caledonian Owlet-nightjar
Aegotheles savesi
The New Caledonian owlet-nightjar is endemic to New Caledonia's Melaleuca savanna and humid forests.
Appearance
The New Caledonian owlet-nightjar, also known as the enigmatic owlet-nightjar, is a large owlet-nightjar with vermiculated grey-brown and black plumage. In 1966 A. Savesi was classified under A. Cristatus, that has been misleading due to their different features and color. (Olson 1987).
Range and habitat
The New Caledonian owlet-nightjar is endemic to New Caledonia's Melaleuca savanna and humid forests.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Other owlet-nightjars are solitary, nest in holes in trees, and forage from a perch, both flying out to catch flying insects (hawking) and descending onto prey on the ground or on trunks and branches. The most recent report is from a 1998 expedition that saw a large nightjar foraging for insects at dusk in Rivière Ni Valley.
In crisis
It is the second-largest known owlet-nightjar (only the extinct New Zealand owlet-nightjar was larger), much larger than the Australian owlet-nightjar. This large owlet-nightjar is only known from two specimens taken in 1880 and 1915, two other confirmed sightings and two other partly disputed sightings and one unconfirmed debated sighting. That report has been taken to suggest that the species may still survive in small numbers, but that total population is likely smaller than 50 individuals and declining.
New Caledonian Owlet-nightjar is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on New Caledonian owlet-nightjar, Wikidata item Q223290. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
