A nocturnal bird with intricate silver-grey and brown plumage.
Its plumage is a complex mix of silvery grey and brown. During the day it rests on the ground or in trees.
It is nocturnal. A study in central Hokkaido found it breeding and foraging in early-successional habitats surrounded by forest.
In Japan it lays usually two eggs, occasionally one, on well-drained bare ground without building a nest. Incubation lasts about 19 days and is mainly by the female; chicks move a few metres from the laying site several days after hatching.
At a two-egg nest in a quarry in Ogawa, Saitama, in July 2001, the eggs lay on sparsely vegetated clay and pebbles without nest material. The female performed most incubation by day and night, while the male also incubated briefly near dawn.
In Japan it catches moths and beetles in flight with its wide gape at night and sometimes feeds on insects on forest roads. Breeding males proclaim territories with repeated kyokyokyo calls at night.
In Japan, males have white patches on the sides of the throat, outer wing feathers and outer tail feathers. Females have smaller or brownish throat and wing marks and little white on the tail.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.