The Australian owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles cristatus) is a nocturnal bird found in open woodland across Australia and in southern New Guinea.

It is the most common nocturnal bird in Australia, and despite suffering from predation and competition by introduced species it is not considered threatened.

It lives in a variety of habitats in addition to open woodland, including mangrove swamps, grasslands, mallee scrub and dense forest.

[2] The Australian owlet-nightjar feeds at night by diving from perches and snatching insects from the air, ground or off trunks and branches, in the manner of a flycatcher.

[2] The species is itself prey to another nocturnal carnivore, Macroderma gigas, a larger microchiropteran known as the ghost bat.