Whip-poor-will
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. Like the owl, the Whip-poor-will is a night hunter. But while an owl hunts primarily by sound, the large-eyed Whip-poor-will finds its prey by sight. Thus, the Whip-poor-will is most active at twilight, dawn, and on moonlit nights.

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, light that is reflected back from the corneas of 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.
Whip-poor-will Range Map

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.


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