Peerrnt! The nasal cry is sharp sufficient to penetrate visitors noise on the streets under. Trying up from the sidewalk, we see the supply: a pigeon-sized fowl with lengthy, angular wings, brown with a white slash throughout every pointed wingtip. Its jerky, zigzag flight motion, with erratic fast-slow wingbeats, carries it excessive above the rooftops.
It’s a Frequent Nighthawk, however all the pieces about its title is deceptive. It’s not associated to hawks, and it’s extra lively at daybreak and nightfall than at evening. And though it’s nonetheless widespread, this species is turning into much less widespread in North American skies.
Typically a nighthawk is seen at a distance and in movement. However even up shut and at relaxation, it retains a glance of thriller. Huge head hunched down onto its shoulders, lengthy wingtips folded again over the tail, it squats on the bottom or on a horizontal department, camouflaged in mottled brown. Its large, darkish eyes betray no expression. Its brief beak, trimmed by bristles, appears absurdly small—till it opens its mouth large, revealing a cavernous opening as large as its head, good for scooping up giant bugs in flight.
A century in the past, extra People knew this fowl, usually by its nickname of “bullbat.” Its aerial acrobatics and whooshing show flights have been widespread sights on summer season evenings over open nation—and over cities as effectively. Nighthawks had at all times nested on the bottom, laying their two eggs on naked soil, and so they found flat gravel roofs as worthy substitutes.
Their big selection and daylight exercise made Frequent Nighthawks probably the most accessible representatives of the nightjars (household Caprimulgidae). Nightjars, as a bunch, are among the many most poorly identified of all birds. The scientific household title reveals long-standing confusion: “Caprimulgidae” interprets roughly to “milkers of goats,” reflecting an historical superstition that the Eurasian Nightjar, flitting by pastures at dusk, was there to steal milk from the grazing animals. Even the phrase “nightjar” appears odd, however “jar” right here refers to a jarring, discordant sound, just like the churring tune of the Eurasian species.
Mysterious although they’re, nightjars dwell alongside people on six continents, with virtually 100 species identified.
Mysterious although they’re, nightjars dwell alongside people on six continents, with virtually 100 species identified. About 10 are crepuscular like nighthawks, foraging at daybreak and nightfall, however most species are strictly nocturnal and rarely seen. All are shades of brown or gray-brown with mottled patterns. Males of some have distinctive plumes, like the wonderful Pennant-winged Nightjar of Africa or the Lyre-tailed Nightjar of South America, however most are fairly related and onerous to separate even when seen effectively.
Scientists have bravely struggled to invent English descriptors to tell apart between these lookalike birds, however a reputation like “Tawny-collared Nightjar” means little when most of its kinfolk even have pale neck markings. Names utilized to most family members right now are boring and unhelpful (though the Diabolical Nightjar, from Sulawesi, earns a number of factors for intrigue). One of the best nightjar labels are in North America, the place a number of have been named for his or her voices.
Thus, Japanese Whip-poor-wills and Mexican Whip-poor-wills cry out one thing like whip-prr-WEELL! incessantly on moonlit summer season nights. Chuck-will’s-widows chant their title in deep, throaty tones from southern forests. The whistled poor-WILL-ip of the Frequent Poorwill echoes in arid western canyons. Naturalists searching for the callers at evening may even see their eyeshine reflecting in headlight or flashlight beams, or see the birds foraging, swift shadows swooping about to seize bugs within the air. Found in daylight, they sit immobile, counting on camouflage; if approached too intently, they flush from the bottom, flying away low to hunt one other hiding place.
At one time, the vast majority of People most likely have been aware of nighthawks by sight or with their nocturnal kin by sound. At this time these birds are including to their sense of thriller by performing a vanishing act, turning into much more elusive yearly. By some estimates, Frequent Nighthawks have misplaced 50 p.c of their complete numbers since 1970. Populations and tendencies of different nightjars are onerous to measure because it’s virtually unattainable to get correct counts, however most are most likely shedding floor. This echoes a normal decline in numbers of aerial insectivores—birds that catch flying bugs within the air—and raises alarms for the longer term.
Metropolis-nesting nighthawks could also be vanishing as flat gravel roofs are changed by different supplies, and their eggs or younger could also be susceptible to predation by growing city colonies of crows. They and different nightjars are seemingly additionally affected by the final lower in insect populations.
However we will take optimistic steps. In a number of cities, together with Chicago, group applications monitor nighthawks yearly, in peak breeding season in early summer season or throughout fall migration in August and September. And efforts to halt insect declines, reminiscent of reining in overuse of pesticides and decreasing pointless out of doors lighting, will be useful for all aerial insectivores. Even when the nighthawks stay excessive overhead, even when their extra secretive cousins stay nothing greater than voices at the hours of darkness, they assist to keep up a contact of avian thriller in our lives.
This story initially ran within the Summer season 2026 difficulty as “Strangers within the Night time.” To obtain our print journal, change into a member by making a donation today.
