A NIGHTHAWK AT MORNING

The term nighthawk is somewhat of a misnomer, because they commonly fly during the day, at dusk, and at night.

This is the first time I've heard that the nighthawk's call is used to locate flying insects. It's possible, but I doubt it.

That's folk wisdom, so i don't claim it has scientific support--i've never seen them in broad daylight, only in the dusk or morning or evening, and in the night. Their "beeping" call comes, in my personal experience, one "beep" at a time at regular intervals. Old country boys claim they're locating the large insects on which they like to feed.

I found it odd to see one in daylight, as i have observed them for more than 40 years, but never had seen any in full daylight.

I haven't seen them fly during the daytime in Texas, but that may be because it's so hot. As a kid in Wisconsin, I remember watching them do their deep courtship dives during the daytime.

I have found it a treat to watch them any time i have seen them--but the other morning, the bird seemed to be flying aimlessly, and was making more noise than ever i've heard one make, and, as i've said, it sounded like distress to me. I found it upsetting.

Stumbled across this topic. I'm a chronic worrier about critters in distress so I looked up Nighthawks in my copy of Peterson's Field Guide. It says that "nighthawks are aberrant goatsucksers, often abroad by day," and it describes the voice as "a nasal preent or pee-ik." Peterson created phonic words for the voices of birds. I don't know that I've ever heard or seen a nighthawk, though they are supposed to be common in the south. I've heard lots of whip-poor-wills, which is in the same family of "goatsuckers." That "goatsuckers" got my attention. An internet search provided the explanation for this common name for family Caprimulgidae:

"The name goatsucker is based on an ancient belief that these birds fed on goats' milk by night, but their presence near such animals was no doubt due to the insects attracted by the goats."

The other common name listed for the family is Nightjars. That's how they are listed on the eNature website. You can listen to many bird calls on the site. Here's the link for the Nighthawk:

http://www.enature.com/guides/play_bird_real.asp?recnum=BD0141

Setanta, I hope your nighthawk was merely garrulous rather than in distress!

As do i, Boss, as do i . . .

Surely i would be comdemned by all good christians (one can only hope), but i am more disturbed by an aminal in distress than a person, because animals have fewer resources to deal with their misery . . .

dunno if it was a nighthawk, and it was mid-afternoon...

we saw a critter in our backyard, that looked sorta like this

except it had a grey chest.

it was perched on the flat roof of a neighbor's garage.
it had a pigeon under its claws, and was in the process of killing it.
then it clumsily flew away with its prey, leaving a couple of pigeon feathers to flutter.

pretty amazing site to see up close...

The bird in your picture looks like a Perigrine Falcon, and they do eat pigeons (other birds), however, they do not have a crest, though it's possible it's head feathers were ruffled up by the wind or something.

Birds can have strange behaviors when they are not in personal distress. For example, many birds behave (and fly) oddly when a predator is around, especially a hawk or Falcon. Presumably it's a defensive or offensive display intended to disturb the predator's hunting behavior in some way. I've seen crows collectively dive bombing Red Tailed Hawks on a fairly frequent basis.

Birds will also behave strangely if their offspring are threatened. This is usually a ploy to distract a predator. Killdeer use the broken wing trick, but I think other birds use awkward flying to distract the attention of predator birds.

And I recently read that birds in Brittain are getting drunk on spoiled berries. Once they've had too many berries, they apparently loll around unable to fly effectively. Maybe your nightjar was just flying home after a rough night out sucking white russian goats milk.

chest, not crest...

Oops, sorry. Well then, I don't know. Prairie Falcons look like Peregrines, but they don't have grey chests either.

Picture Peregrine Falcon:

http://home.hccnet.nl/r.goedegebuur/plaatjes/slechtvalkp1.html

Peregrene Falcon as status symbol:

Seigneurs of Chastelas, canons of the Church of Auxerre, were granted the right to attend services armed with their swords, clad in a surplice and amice, wearing a plumed hat, and holding on their fist their hawk. The treasurers of both the Church of Auxerre and that of Nevers were also granted the right to attend divine services, on feast days, with their hawks. The Seigneur of Sassay and the Cure of Ezy were allowed by the church of Our Lady of Evreux to fly their goshawk and tiercel (male Peregrine Falcon) over the entire diocese of Evreux, while being attended by six spaniels and two hounds. They were additionally allowed to wear boots and spurs and to have "drum beating instead of the organ." Some of the less privileged monks of this period are reported to have filed a complaint with the proper authorities regarding the deplorable practice of hunting hawks pursuing and killing prey within the actual walls of their monastery. This complaint resulted in a loosely worded stricture against hunting near monasteries, which was promptly ignored by an overwhelming majority of the local falconers, probably including the local clergy.


I had a peregrine falcon visit my bird feeder--to the great distress of the song birds. The critter gorged himself on sunflower seeds.

We're still unsure, it might have been a sharp-shinned hawk, at least that's the closest-looking critter in my Audubon book which has a habitat in the area.

Birds get blown off course when migrating--and there have been high winds lately.

good point.
i heard they measured a 70-mile per hour gust on cape cod last wednesday, after that rain storm blew threw...

A few months back there was a hawk on the New England shore, which is normally native to Africa. I can't remember the species, but they said it was blown off course from Europe to the east coast of the US. Lots of bird watchers showed up to see it.

Whatever the latitude, wasn't the hawk lucky that pigeons are pigeons?

And Dragonflies are Dragonflies... apparently the African Hawk was small, and was seen hunting dragonflies on the wing. It must be a very nimble flier. Wish I could remember the species.

this critter looked clumsy in the air, like it was having trouble gaining altitude...