The adult male silky-tailed nightjar has light grey-brown, vermiculated plumage with a strong blackish streak on the top of the head and the nape. It has blackish facial bristles and blackish spots with rufous on the side. Its hind-neck has narrow rufous-tawny half-collar plumage. The mantle, back, rump, and upper tail of a silky-tailed nightjar converts to blackish-brown with irregular patterns of buff and cinnamon. The breast is blackish-brown with short narrow bars of cinnamon and the belly is blackish-brown with blotches and irregular narrow bars of buff.
The nominate subspecies of silky-tailed nightjar is found in the Atlantic Forest region of southeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, and extreme northeastern Argentina (Misiones Province). It inhabits the interior and edges of secondary forest and subtropical evergreen forest. In elevation it ranges between 82 and 913 m (270 and 3,000 ft). A. s. mengeli is found in eastern Peru, northwestern Bolivia, and in scattered sites in Brazil's Pará state. It inhabits a variety of landscapes including mature tropical forest, terra firme forest, and lowland tropical rainforest. In elevation it ranges between 227 and 1,200 m (740 and 3,900 ft).
Nightjars eat a variety of insects and the young are fed by their parents via regurgitation. Regurgitation is used by birds where it is to bring already swallowed food back up through one’s throat and out the mouth to feed their young. The nestlings also forage for ground insects around the nest-site or pick up small soil granules to aid in digestion.
The IUCN has assessed the silky-tailed nightjar as being of Least Concern, though it population is unknown and believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. Because "the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon Basin constantly threatened with human development...known populations of the Silky-tailed Nightjar may rapidly decline."
