Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Spring Migration summary

The common nighthawk, familiar to most everyone, flushed a pair while walking the dogs....



I always figured the males just displayed and mated with females, like in hummingbirds, after all they only have two young at a time and the males are up there, displaying and diving in the evening. Turns out though it takes both the male and female to raise just two young and the males are territorial. The number of young per brood is probl'y so low on account of the evening/dawn foraging window is so narrow, they can't capture enough large insects in that short amount of time.

Nighthawks can actually cool their eggs when they sit on them by means of air sacs under the skin of their bellies, important in open situations like flat rooftops or on the ground. They can also move their eggs and small young to follow the shade.

The big thing about 'em though is that they are one of our longest distance migrants, flying clear to the southernmost third of South America, on the far side of the Brazilian rain forests. Common bird in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina in our winter. No one knows why they go that far. Their near relative down here, the Lesser Nighthawk which looks just like it but which has a very different display, only goes as far as Mexico and Honduras.