The taxon currently contains ~600 species in eight families and five orders: 

• Caprimulgiformes
• Steatornithiformes
• Nyctibiiformes
• Podargiformes
• Aegotheliformes
• Apodiformes

Traditional family-level timetree of extant Strisores based on Stiller et al. (2024), with the distribution of each taxon being indicated by the colour-code used throughout this website (Distribution code). [Chronoclassification might favour splitting Caprimulgidae into 3 families.]

Traditional family-level classification of extant Strisores.

References

Chen A, White ND, Benson RBJ, Braun MJ, and Field DJ (2019), Total-evidence framework reveals complex morphological evolution in nightbirds (Strisores), Diversity 11, e:143. (free pdf)

Chen A, and Field DJ (2020), Phylogenetic definitions for Caprimulgimorphae (Aves) and major constituent clades under the International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature, Vertebr. Zool. 70, 571-585. (pdf)

Hackett SJ, Kimball RT, Reddy S, Bowie RCK, Braun EL, Braun MJ, Chojnowski JL, Cox WA, Han KL, Harshman J, Huddleston CJ, Marks BD, Miglia KJ, Moore WS, Sheldon FH, Steadman DW, Witt CC, and Yuri T (2008), A phylogenetic study of birds reveals their evolutionary history, Science 320, 1763-67. (abstract)

Kuhl H, Frankl-Vilches C, Bakker A, Mayr G, Nikolaus G, Boerno ST, Klages S, Timmermann B, and Gahr M (2021), An unbiased molecular approach using 3'UTRs resolves the avian family-tree of life, Mol. Biol. Evol. 38, 108-127. (free pdf)

Prum RO, Berv JS, Dornburg A, Field DJ, Townsend JP, Lemmon EM, and Lemmon AR (2015), A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next-generation DNA sequencing, Nature 526, 569-57. (abstract)

Sangster G (2005), A name for the clade formed by owlet-nightjars, swifts and hummingbirds. Zootaxa 799, 1-6. (pdf)

Stiller J, Feng S, Chowdhury AA, Rivas-González I, Duchêne DA, Fang Q, Deng Y, Kozlov A, Stamatakis A, Claramunt S, Nguyen JMT, Ho SYW, Faircloth BC, Haag J, Houde P, Cracraft J, Balaban M, Mai U, Chen G, Gao R, Zhou C, Xie Y, Huang Z, Cao Z, Yan Z, Ogilvie HA, Nakhleh L, Lindow B, Morel B, Fjeldså J, Hosner PA, da Fonseca RR, Petersen B, Tobias JA, Székely T, Kennedy JD, Reeve AH, Liker A, Stervander M, Antunes A, Tietze DT, Bertelsen M, Lei F, Rahbek C, Graves GR, Schierup MH, Warnow T, Braun EL, Gilbert MTP, Jarvis ED, Mirarab S, and Zhang G (2024), Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes, Nature 629, 851-860. (pdf)

White ND, and Braun MJ (2019), Extracting phylogenetic signal from phylogenomic data: higher-level relationships of the nightbirds (Strisores). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 141, e:106611. (abstract)

Wu S, Rheindt FE, Zhang J, Wang J, Zhang L, Quan C, Li Z, Wang M, Wu F, Qu Y, Edwards SV, Zhou Z, and Liu L (2024), Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 121, e:23I9696121. (pdf)

Zhao M, Thom G, Faircloth BC, Andersen MJ, Barker FK, Benz BW, Braun MJ, Bravo GA, Brumfield RT, Chesser RT, Derryberry EP, Glenn TC, Harvey MG, Hosner PA, Imfeld TS, Joseph L, Manthey JD, McCormack JE, McCullough JM, Moyle RG, Oliveros CH, White Carreiro ND, Winker K, Field DJ, Ksepka DT, Braun EL, Kimball RT, and Smith BT (2025), Efficient inference of macrophylogenies: Insights from the Avian Tree of Life, bioRxiv preprint server (pdf)