This paper is concerned with the distributed filtering problem for nonlinear time-varying systems over wireless sensor networks under random link failures. To achieve consensus estimation, each sensor node is allowed to communicate with its neighboring nodes according to a prescribed communication topology. Firstly, a new hybrid consensus-based filtering algorithm under random link failures, which affect the information exchange between sensors and are modeled by a set of independent Bernoulli processes, is designed via redefining the interaction weights. Second, a novel observability condition, called parameterized jointly uniform observability, is proposed to ensure the stochastic boundedness of the error covariances of the hybrid consensus-based filtering algorithm. Finally, an example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the derived theoretical results.