They are mostly active in the late evening and early morning or at night, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.

Most have small feet, of little use for walking, and their soft plumage is cryptically coloured to resemble bark or leaves.

Some species, unusually for birds, perch along a branch, rather than across it, which helps to conceal them during the day.

Temperate species are strongly migratory, wintering in the tropics.

These species were formerly placed in the genus Caprimulgus but were moved to the resurrected genus Antrostomus based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010.