tags: Common nighthawk, Chordeiles minor, birds, Image of the Day
Male Common Nighthawk, Chordeiles minor, photographed in June on the Konza Prairie. For those of you who are curious, this image is the screensaver on my laptop.
Also known as "bullbats", apparently from their habit of swooping around cattle in pastures to pick off the insects stirred up by the bovines. You can tell it is a male from the white throat, which is buffy in the females. I just love the feather patterns on these birds; they are a subtle masterpiece. [This species a]lso seems to be declining; the original New York state breeding bird atlas found concentrations of nighthawks in all major cities; the most recent atlas (2000-2002) found none in these areas. Suspects include nesting habitat loss and perhaps declines in flying insects.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [screensaver size]
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Oh my. How gorgeous.
I am not sure how the population is doing around here (NW Georgia, NE Alabama). I used to see lots of them flying around the lights on billboards. I haven't noticed that so much lately, but I haven't been hanging around billboards much myself. They are quite a sight in flight, too.
Lovely shot. Sort of spooky and mysterious birds. I hear their squeeky croaks on summer evenings in the Southern Washington Cascades. They're always too fast, too high, and too late in the day to get a very good look at them. It kills me to think of them declining.
for some reason they call more in the city. I had an office on the fifth floor of a building with a balcony a few years ago. Nighthawks flew right in front of me when I was out there at dusk. I noticed they would consistently flap three times quickly and vigorously before calling.
A few years ago I saw what seemed to be hundreds of nighthawks.
There was construction at the University of Texas football stadium and they kept floodlights on all night. I was coming home and at first I thought there were swarms of bats around the lights. I walked past to get a closer look and I saw that they were nighthawks, not bats. They must have been feeding on the insects that were drawn to the lights.
I don't recall ever seeing a nighthawk in NYC or the suburbs. It too bad they are declining.
I have heard them over Toronto - but not so much the last few years and hardly at all this summer. I thought it was just that I wasn't downtown as much. Or maybe that it's been too dry this year. I hope it's not a general problem.