Common Nighthawk

Common Nighthawk

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

Pursuing flying insects at dusk and dawn, the Common Nighthawk can be seen flying its floppy flight in rural or urban areas. Its white wing patches and eratic flight make it look like a big bat with headlights, and it is known in some areas as the "bullbat."

Description

• Medium-sized bird.
• Large-headed with a tiny bill.
• Very well camouflaged, colored in browns, black, and gray.
• Barring on chest.
• In flight, long, pointed, bent wings with white patch near tip.

• Size: 22-24 cm (9-9 in)
• Wingspan: 53-57 cm (21-22 in)
• Weight: 65-98 g (2.29-3.46 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes similar in plumage, but female with smaller white wing patch, browner underneath, and lacking white tail stripe of male.

Sound

Call a nasal "peent." Booming sound made with wings during display dive.

Conservation Status

Populations decreasing dramatically in some areas.

Other Names

Engoulevent d'Amerique (French)
Tapacamino zumbón (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• The male Common Nighthawk has a dramatic booming display used during the breeding season. He flies around at a moderate height, then dives straight toward the ground. Somewhere just about two meters from the ground he turns upward. At the bottom of the dive he flexes his wings downward, and the air rushing through his wingtips makes a deep booming sound. The dives are directed at females, young nighthawks, intruders, and even people.

Sources used to construct this page:

Poulin, R. G., S. D. Grindal, and R. M. Brigham. 1996. Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor). In The Birds of North America, No. 213 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.