A desert nightjar that rests under low bushes by day and catches flying insects at night. The nominate subspecies aegyptius occurs in Arabia.
The Arabian nominate subspecies aegyptius is greyer and darker, with heavier fine vermiculation, than the African subspecies saharae.
It uses open desert with scattered trees or bushes, sometimes near water. By day it rests under low bushes; at night it hunts moths and other flying insects.
At Ajban, UAE, two nests found in 2016 and 2017 each held two eggs. They were on compacted sand-gravel ground scattered with dwarf shrubs.
At Ajban, chicks still being brooded were found about 70 m from the egg site on 13 April 2016. Chicks found on 28 April the following year were about 5 m from their egg site.
Fresh-plumaged juveniles found at Ajban had pale tips to the greater wing coverts, forming a conspicuous pale panel.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.