Common Nighthawk
Nighthawks are ground-nesters that normally breed in clearings, prairies, burned areas, cultivated fields, rocky outcrops, and other open or semi-open habitats. The male nighthawk performs a spectacular aerial display over the nest site. He first circles high above the site while giving distinctive loud nasal "peent" calls and then suddenly dives steeply toward the sitting female with wings held in a stiff "V." At the bottom of the dive he brings his wings forward so that the air rushing through the primary feathers produces a booming whoosh, something like the sound produced by blowing across the opening of a bottle. Then the male rises again and resumes flight. When courting, he may alight near the female, making growling sounds and croaking notes while puffing out his white throat patch and fanning his tail. The couple may mate after a short chase. Males continue their diving display flights throughout the breeding season, defending their territories against other nighthawks and sometimes against humans and raccoons.

The female lays two heavily speckled eggs directly on bare ground without any nesting material. Only the female incubates. Both parents feed hatchlings regurgitated food. When the hens encounter very high temperatures at the nest, especially on gravel roofs, the hens provide shade as well as protection from the cold. Nighthawks are able to lose heat through a process called gular fluttering. They rapidly vibrate their throat muscles and bones, increasing evaporative cooling at the mouth lining and upper throat.

Unlike the more strictly nocturnal members of the goatsucker family such as Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will's-widows, Common Nighthawks are most active from dawn to early morning and from late afternoon to dusk, and are sometimes seen in broad daylight. They catch food on the wing, including flying ants and beetles, wasps, flies, mosquitoes, moths, and other insects. They usually fly fairly high, up to about 600 feet. They sometimes feed on insects attracted to lights. Nighthawks drink in flight, skimming the surface of a pond or stream with their lower mandible. Nighthawks' erratic flight style is distinctive, incorporating quick flaps and glides, with long angular wings usually held above horizontal.

Common Nighthawks migrate long distances, leaving their extensive North and Central American breeding range to winter in South America as far south as northern Argentina. Most North American populations move south through Central America, but some fly over the Caribbean. Migratory flocks of 20 or more may fly along established routes each fall. Common Nighthawks occasionally travel in huge flocks of up to 1,000, at times ascending in thermals like buteos.
Common Nighthawk Range Map

Description: In common with other members of the goatsucker family, Common Nighthawks have relatively long wings and tails, short legs, relatively weak feet, small bill, very large mouth, and large eyes. Common Nighthawks have distinctive pointed wings and a notched tail. At rest the wings extend beyond the tip of the tail. There is a conspicuous white bar near the base of the primaries midway between the "wrist' and tip of the wing. Males show a white band near the tip of the tail. A chevron-shaped patch at the throat is white in males and buffy in females. The head, chest and upperparts are variably gray, cinnamon or blackish, and spotted with buff. Underparts are white to buffy.

Common Nighthawks are most similar to the very closely related Antillean Nighthawk (C. gundlachii) of the Caribbean and Florida Keys. Antillean Nighthawks are slightly smaller and shorter winged, but are chiefly distinguished by their rapid multi-syllabic calls. The Lesser Nighthawk (C. acutipennis) occurs in the deserts of the Southwest. The white band on its wing is located nearer to the wingtips than that of the Common Nighthawk. Its primary feathers above the white band show buffy spots, absent in Common Nighthawks. In flight, the Lesser Nighthawk forages closer to the ground with shallower wingbeats than the Common Nighthawk.

When buildings with flat gravel roofs became common around 1870, observers began noting an increase in city-dwelling Common Nighthawks, which found the pebbled surface suitable for nesting.


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