A nocturnal nightbird with large eyes and a very wide gape. It stays still on a branch by day and catches flying prey at night.
It has a large head and eyes, a short broad bill with a very wide gape, and white to gray plumage marbled with black and burgundy. White bars cross its long tail.
It uses forest and rainforest. By day it stays still on high branches; at night it launches from lower perches to catch large flying insects and sometimes bats.
A chick observed along the Guarico River in Venezuela in 1987 was covered in white down. At about five weeks it was paler grey than the adult, with less dark barring and a shorter tail.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.