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The Whip-poor-will
eats a variety of flying insects, ranging in size from mosquitoes to
large beetles and moths. Although its bill is quite small, it opens
into a huge gaping maw when the Whip-poor-will flies after prey. It
forages in sustained flight, wheeling and circling, sometimes gliding
and even hovering. Whip-poor-wills also make short sallies after flying
prey from branches or perches on the ground.
Whip-poor-wills are sometimes seen sitting on tracks or roads. They
have small weak feet and short legs, and hop about awkwardly on the
ground. Like other members of the "goatsucker" family, they may be detected by their eyeshine, the light reflected from their eyes. Whip-poor-wills tend to sit lengthwise on
branches instead of across them like most other birds.
Elaborate courtship displays lead up to mating. A Whip-poor-will female
may alight near a calling male, who then walks toward her with an undulating
gait, head raised with each step and then lowered. Reaching her, he
circles as she bobs, one or both birds calling continuously. Or he may
approach her from alternating sides, touching her bill as she trembles.
Due to the Whip-poor-will’s reliance on moonlight, its breeding
cycle is synchronized with the lunar cycle. Whip-poor-wills lay their
eggs so that they hatch as the moon is waxing. In this way, they have
the advantage of maximum moonlight while feeding their growing young.
No nest is prepared for the pair’s clutch of one or two eggs. Instead
the Whip-poor-wills' eggs are laid on a bed of leaves.
In the East, the eggs often rest near a log in a small clearing or at
the edge of woods. In the West, the female often lays her eggs under
a rocky overhang on a slope or in a wooded ravine. During the day, the
female incubates the eggs. At night, both parents share the incubation
duties.
When the Whip-poor-wills’ eggs hatch, both parents feed the young
regurgitated food. Soon the chicks are able to hop along the ground
away from the nest, but they are still brooded by their parents. They
rely on the parents' cryptic-coloring to hide them, but when that fails,
the young may scatter and freeze while the parent performs a distraction
display.
Whip-poor-wills live in open woodlands with well-spaced trees and low
canopy from south central and southeastern Canada southward to the southeastern
United States. A separate population occurs in western Texas, Arizona
and New Mexico. It may be a separate species
Although the western Whip-poor-wills average slightly larger, the two
groups are distinguishable only by voice. While the eastern birds sing
the well known three part “WHIP-poor- WEEA” with rising
last note and first and last syllables accented, the western birds’
song is lower and more burry or trilled, and accented on the last note
only.
Both Whip-poor-will populations migrate at night, with eastern birds
wintering from South Carolina along the Gulf of Mexico to Guatemala.
Western birds winter in central Mexico.
Description:
Whip-poor-wills are mottled grayish-brown birds with long rounded tails
and rounded wings. The males have black throats separated from the breast
by a necklace of white. They show white outer tail feathers. The females
have a thinner and buffier necklace and lack the white on the tail.
In flight, Whip-poor-wills lack the long pointed wings and white wing
patches of the nighthawks (Chordeiles sp.). They are much smaller
than Chuck-will's-widow (C. carolinensis) with less pointed wings
and, usually, less rufous coloring.
The
recording of the Whip-poor-will was made by Geoffrey A. Keller. Recordings
of the Whip-poor-will may be found on our
Peterson Field Guide Series Eastern/Central Bird Songs CD
available at our online Cornell
Lab Birding Shop.
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