Uncommon and local, and genuinely hard to find — a strictly nocturnal Pantepui endemic that most birders only get by night-driving or spotlighting on tepui roads. Voice is the key to detection.
Field marks
Small-to-medium grayish-brown nightjar with cryptic vermiculated plumage. Look for white in the outer tail and a wing-spot pattern; best confirmed by voice and by range (the only small nightjar of the tepui highlands at elevation). Eyeshine bright red/orange in the spotlight.
Habitat
Humid forest, forest edge, and humid scrub near forest on tepui slopes and uplands; perches and forages along clearings, roadsides, and edges within the highland zone.
Behavior
Nocturnal and crepuscular; sallies for insects from the ground or low perches, often along open road verges and edges at night. Roosts on the ground or low branches by day and is very difficult to flush/locate in daylight.
Voice
Distinctive hoarse, descending whistle 'whoEEuuu,' repeated steadily — the single most reliable detection cue. Search Xeno-canto and Macaulay Library for 'Setopagis whitelyi' or 'Roraiman Nightjar' (also now filed under Tepuiornis whitelyi).
Band-winged Nightjar (Systellura longirostris) — occurs in tepui/highland areas; separate by voice and by the band-winged's broad pale wing-band; Roraiman's hoarse whistled song is diagnostic.
Blackish Nightjar (Nyctipolus nigrescens) — darker, lowland/rock-outcrop bird with a very different churring/trilled voice.
Guide note
Run a slow night-drive or stake out a tepui-road clearing at dusk; listen for the hoarse 'whoEEuuu,' then sweep verges and low perches with a spotlight for red eyeshine. Pin the song location first, approach quietly, and light the bird only once it's perched so clients get a stable scope/bins view.
