The great eared nightjar (Lyncornis macrotis) is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in southwest India and in parts of Southeast Asia. This very large nightjar has long barred wings, a barred tail and long ear-tufts which are often recumbent. It has a white throat band but has no white on its wings or on its tail.
The great eared nightjar was formally described in 1831 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors based on a sample collected in the neighbourhood of Manila in the Philippines. Vigors coined the binomial name Caprimulgus macrotis.[1] The great eared nightjar was formerly placed in the genus Eurostopodus. It and the closely related Malaysian eared nightjar were moved to the resurrected genus Lyncornis based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 that found large genetic differences between the great eared nightjar and other species in Eurostopodus.[2] [3] The genus name Lyncornis combines the Ancient Greek / (meaning "lynx") with , meaning "bird". The specific epithet macrotis is from the Ancient Greek , meaning "long-eared" (from meaning "long" and , meaning "ear").[4]
Five subspecies are recognised:[2]
The great eared nightjar is the largest species in the family in terms of length, which can range from 31to. Males weigh an average of 131g and females weigh an average of 151g, making it the second heaviest species in the family after the nacunda nighthawk.[5]
It is found in South Asia and Southeast Asia with populations in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka,[6] Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or moist lowland tropical forests.
Like other nightjars they are nocturnal, active at dusk and at night.[7] They have a distinctive call which includes a sharp tsiik followed by a pause and a two-syllable ba-haaww.
The nest is a scrape on the ground and the clutch consists of a single egg. The chick is well camouflaged among leaf litter.[8]