The Common Pauraque hides on the ground in leaf-colored plumage by day and catches flying insects at night.
Its brown, black, and gray plumage blends into open ground where it sleeps by day. A tiny bill opens into a wide mouth.
It catches flying insects from dusk into the night and rests under brush or on the ground by day. Males give whistles and low grunts from evening into night.
Eggs are laid directly on flat ground or fallen leaves, often beneath a shrub, without a nest structure. They are buff or salmon-buff with markings, and the downy hatchlings can move around.
It takes beetles, moths, flies, and other insects. It may chase and leap after prey on the ground or make short flights upward to catch insects flying close to the ground.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.