Pauraque

22-28 cm. When on the ground the wing tips reach halfway down the tail. Upperparts grayish brown tinged rufous, mottled brown and speckled grayish white: central crown streaked black: lesser coverts chestnut to gray, speckled brown, the rest of the wing coverts grayish brown boldly spotted buff: scapulars blackish brown, edged and tipped buff, tawny or chestnut: eyring and submalar stripe light buff with blackish borders: lores and ear coverts rufous speckled brown: throat patch white, often restricted to the sides of the throat: underparts grayish brown tinged rufous, speckled and vermiculated brown, becoming barred brown on the belly and flanks: the male has a broad white band across the outermost primaries with the outermost tail feathers blackish and the next two outermost tail feathers whitish: the female has thinner white wing bands and narrow white tips to the second and third outermost rectrices: iris black brown: bill black.<nA less common rufous morph has the overall coloration tinged rufous cinnamon. <nThe immature similar to the adult but the male has a thinner wing band.

Call a repeated whistled wheeow : other calls include whups, whips, and clucks, guttural hisses, grunts and rattles.

Forages by flying over open country or above forest canopy or over water. Also hunts from a perch or makes sallies from the ground.

Breeds on the ground.

Relatively common in forests, forest borders, open glades in forests, open woodland, gallery forest, scrub, cultivated land, parks, marshes and mangroves.

Throughout.