Lyncornis


Lyncornis is a genus of nightjars in the nightjar family Caprimulgidae that are found is South and Southeast Asia. The English name "eared nightjar" refers to the two tufts of feathers on their head.

Taxonomy

The genus Lyncornis was introduced in 1838 by the English ornithologist John Gould
with Lyncornis cerviniceps Gould 1838 as the type species. This taxon is now treated as a subspecies of the great eared nightjar. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek lunx, lunkos meaning "lynx" with ornis meaning "bird".

Species

The genus contains two species:
ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Lyncornis temminckiiMalaysian eared nightjarBrunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand
Lyncornis macrotisGreat eared nightjarSri Lanka Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam

These two species were formerly placed in the genus Eurostopodus. They 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 the other species in Eurostopodus.