This nightjar hides on the ground in damp grassland and wetlands, then catches flying insects from dusk onward. Its African range is broad but patchy.
It is compact, with relatively long legs and brown to grey plumage. Males have white markings on the outer tail and wings; the corresponding female markings are buff or tawny.
It uses grassland, floodplains, swamps, marshes, and lagoon edges that remain damp through the year. From dusk into the night it catches flying insects, especially beetles and moths, sometimes taking prey close to the ground.
In southern Africa it lays two eggs on bare sandy or clay soil beside or beneath a grass tuft. Both sexes incubate, the female by day and the male at night, for less than 20 days.
Both parents brood the chicks after hatching.
In southern Africa it is generally resident, but may wander when flooding, fire, or other unfavourable local conditions affect its habitat.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.