The ladder-tailed nightjar is found in all regions of the
Amazon basin, and in the northeast the
Guiana Shield and the
Guianan countries; its range does not extend east of the
Amazon River outlet, (the island:
Ilha de Marajo). At this same outlet, in the region of the
Xingu River confluence, the range extends southward and is in the lower two-thirds of the drainage of this north-flowing river. In the west the species range is adjacent to the
Andes foothills. In the north, the range extends into southeastern Venezuela, and only the upper third of the Caribbean north-flowing
Orinoco River drainage, the area of the eastern Orinoco River Basin and uplands bordering western Guyana. In the very headwaters of the southern Amazon Basin, the
upstream half of the river drainages, both in the southeast and southwest, the range overlaps with its sister
Hydropsalis species, the
scissor-tailed nightjar, which ranges into southeast Brazil through the
caatinga,
cerrado, and
pantanal south into
Argentina. The two species cover all of
South America east of the Andes cordillera from central Argentina to the
Caribbean coast; the exception is a small region centered southeast of the Amazon basin in the vicinity of
Maranhão, Brazil. Ladder-tailed nightjar (Hydropsalis climacocerca climacocerca) Rio Napo.jpg|in the Amazon, Ecuador Ladder-tailed nightjar (Hydropsalis climacocerca) incubating eggs.JPG|Incubating eggs, Rio São Manuel, South Amazon, Brazil ==References==