• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Range map
• Resources

Taxonomic note
Aegotheles bennettii and A. affinis (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as A. bennettii following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993). Regarded as conspecific with A. cristatus until the latter was discovered to occur in New Guinea within the range of present species, but the two are evidently close relatives. Until recently regarded as conspecific with A. affinis (see related note/s). Subspecies terborghi previously placed in A. affinis but now moved to A. bennettii. Four subspecies recognized.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2023. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 8. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v8_Dec23.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2023	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	661,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2017-2027
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-9%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-9%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-9%	-	-	-
Generation length	3.48 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be not uncommon (del Hoyo et al. 1999, Kirwan et al. 2020).

Trend justification: Considerable areas of rainforest still exist in most regions of New Guinea and the species is unlikely to be threatened (Kirwan et al. 2020), however forest loss is slow but ongoing within the range. Remote sensing data indicate that tree cover loss is equivalent to c.3% in three generations (Global Forest Watch 2023, using data from Hansen et al. [2013] and methods disclosed therein). Precautionarily, the species is suspected to be declining, tentatively placed here in the range 1-9% in three generations.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Indonesia	extant	native	yes
Papua New Guinea	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 1100 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Barred Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles bennettii. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/barred-owlet-nightjar-aegotheles-bennettii on 07/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 07/01/2025.