It has a bright cinnamon buff collar on the hindneck and a narrow buffy white band under the throat.

The ends of the two outermost tail feathers have much white in the male and a small amount of buff in the female.

[3] The nominate subspecies of buff-collared nightjar breeds from southeastern Arizona south through central Mexico to Morelos; it migrates from that area in winter.

[3][2] They inhabit a variety of landscapes including thickly vegetated ravines and canyons in the arid north and thorn scrub and moister pine-oak woodlands to the south.

[3] The buff-collared nightjar forages by flying from a perch or the ground to as high as 10 m (33 ft) and returns to the same spot.

There is at least one observation of an adult giving a broken-wing display, apparently to distract two canyon walkers from its nest.

[1] There is potential for habitat loss in Mexico; virtually all of its tiny U.S. range is protected in some way from that threat.