I’m outside listening to a couple whippoorwills. Does anyone else have them pass through where you live?

They’re generally here in the summertime. Enjoy hearing them.

I thought maybe I knew what kind of bird you were speaking of-we have something similar out west, the Nighthawk? Looks like they may be related, anyway?

Just parked the lawn mower, have the back door open with screen shut, can hear two out there right now, and frogs in Wifes brim pond.

Common Nighthawks and Eastern Whip-poor-wills do look very similar but have very different songs.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Whip-poor-will/sounds

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Nighthawk/sounds

Than
Interesting! That's quite a song the Whip-poor-will has.'

Thanks!

Lots of songs reference the Whippoorwill.

Every evening from my bedroom window just before the owls kick in....

Have had a couple out in the back for quite a few summers. Always love to listen to them, call to them and they come up into the back yard. One of the true signs that winter i finally over. Have yet to see one though.

I’ve lived within 15 miles of where I sit right now all of my life and never heard a whippoorwill . Took my sons sons turkey hunting 30 miles away to a state F&G area and heard several about an hour before sunrise, it is quite a song.

We have Whippoorwills passing through SE Georgia on their migration, but they don't breed this far south so we don't get their song. What we hear that most people confuse with the Whippoorwill is called a Chuck-will's-widow which is a similar, but different bird altogether.

I live on a road named after the Whippoorwill that we have never heard here.

Our western version is called a "Poor Will" appropriate to its call. Probably only 1/10 the volume of the Whippoorwill, and many old timers and few youngsters living in this area are aware of their existence. Poor Wills are ground nesters with "nest" being a bit of a stretch. Usually just a couple eggs out on bare basalt cobble. Bird and eggs are extremely well camouflaged though.

When living back in the wooded Virginia's, a nearby Whippoorwill could bring me out a sound sleep, and I can snooze right through things like thunder storms. Neat birds with it once rumored that they could hibernate. Don't know if that claim still holds water or not.

None of them up here.


Nighthawks but thats it.

One of Hank Williams’s best ever, as a matter of fact. 🤠

Wikipedia says its true.


Apparently the common Poorwill is native to a tiny strip of Montana where I live.



I will have to keep an eye out for one.

Wish we had them out here. I love their cry. I'll have to do with the meadowlarks that have begun to arrive.

They are in our N.C. mountains all spring and summer.

Robins in early morning and evening are pretty too.

Where you live you are most likely to be listening to the Whippoorwills big brother, that being the bigger ‘n a pigeon-sized Chuck-Wills-Widow......




Big enough to swallow small birds, reptiles and rodents whole but large insects usually suffice. And gloriously loud close-up, if ya ever have one sitting on the roof you’ll know it.

The Whippoorwill passes through in numbers but breeds up north, and is pretty quiet on migration .

Yep. That’s what we have here.

I agree on Hanks song. As to the volume of the whippoorwill’s song, it is louder than I can duplicate by far.

I love to hear them in the Springtime. It gets me happy.

I’m going to lease by Austin this weekend. There are bunches of them right now.

I only heard a Whippoorwill a few times when living down south, beautiful to hear. I heard my first Meadow Lark here, just 2 or 3 days ago! Good to have them back! memtb

Cool birds.

Funniest one was Spring Break ‘86, Hot Springs Arkansas. Campground packed, brilliant moonlit night. 2am a just-arrived Chuck-Wills-Widow shows up, calling loud as all get out Moving from place to place around the campground.

Yells from all over.... SHUUUT UP BIRD!!! BIIIRD!! SHUUUT UUP!!

We have them here, and the old folks said that their song meant it was time to plant corn. They translated the whip-por-rill into...plant your one grain. Not as many as there used to be though.

Y’all ever heard the Rain Bird. ? Don’t know their proper name, but old folks around hear swear it means the rain is coming.

Yep! When I was a kid, used to see and hear them all the time. I’d forgotten about them! Brings back memories, seeing that name again. Living in Louisiana, the “Rain Bird” forecast was pretty accurate! memtb

Rare to see or hear, but they were called "rain crows" in WVa. I think actually a Cuckoo. Most could assign a name to the call, but few had ever seen the bird. I found one example of the black billed variety, and that one was a fresh road kill.

I grew up in rural north east PA and we had them every year, have not heard one since I moved away I miss their calls.

I knew that when I wrote “Rain Bird”.....it didn’t sound correct! Thanks for setting me straight! We had quite a few around when I was a kid! They seemed to be pretty shy, careful..... however you may want to describe them. They kept out of Benjamin Pump range pretty well! memtb

Neighbor lady is camping with her daughter over on the ridge over from me watching the fire and listening to them. Peaceful.

We had whippoorwills at the old house when I first moved there 20+ years ago, then for some reason they disappeared.

I am really happy that they are here at the new house every year so far. Love to hear them and yes, for a small bird they are very loud.

Hear rain crows pretty often.

The one I miss is the Bobwhites. There were some around at the old house for one year about 10 years or so ago but they left too.

We have chuck-wills-widow here, I haven't heard one yet this year. Most people call them whippoorwills but their calls have the distinctive "ch" sound at the first. I don't think there are any whippoorwills this far west.

They're very common here in N.E. Texas. I believe we have chuck wills widow, but everybody calls them whip poor wills. I bet there's a half dozen or more of them calling in the woods behind the house right now.

I live in the middle of a 300 acre farm, nearest neighbor a half mile away, so the wildlife is all around. One of the things I always loved the most about late spring and early summer was to hear the Bobwhites whistling, and we've been here for almost 35 years. The place was always full of Bobwhites whistling in all directions. They'd come right up in the yard when I'd call back to them. I haven't heard one in about 5 years. I have no idea where they went.

Nightjars have a similar place in my heart -- African childhood. The montane nightjar from Ethiopia and the fiery-necked nightjar of RSA sounded close enough for me. Wish whippoorwills could be heard near me. (In fact, I find most American birds boring. Blue jays, painted buntings, a few others are interesting, but nothing like East Africa.) "Whip poor Will" here and in South Africa its "Good LORD deliver-r-r-r-r!"

Bull bats and whippoorwills here.

Heard the Chuck wills last night. No bullbats yet.

And my whistling ducks came home yesterday. Will pick em up a bag of corn today.

This morning all the daddy red birds were singing. And there was my home pair of Pileated woodpeckers in the bottom hollering.

No whistling ducks here except that one day. Never knew they existed until then. miles

Southeast Massachusetts, I remember the whippoorwills and Bobwhite Quail when I was a kid. Haven't heard them in 50 or so years. Maybe progress wiped out their habitat. Sad.

I was told that first cotton poison, then clean farming and later fire ants destroyed the Bobwhites here.

When I was a little boy back in the 50's I could hear them every night from my bedroom. I used to love listening to them. I haven't heard one since about 1959. Sad.

We have whippoorwills here allmost all summer, at times they are cool to listen to, when coon hunting they are a PITA,, and dont like one in the yard when the window is open because of their volume,,, they are one of the few birds Ive seen that their eyes shine in the dark when lights hit them

We have one whip-poor-will that cranks up most nights on our place. There use to be lots of them. And, yesterday I heard a quail on our place for the first time. This is the first spring I've lived here in 30 years, but Dad says the quail disappeared years ago. Maybe they are making a comeback.

As a footnote, I caught 2 foxes and 2 bobcats on our property this winter, so maybe getting rid of some of the predators will help.

No doubt that the predators do hurt the quail, but I think the biggest thing has been the loss of habitat. 50 years ago, we had plenty of Bobwhites. Most of the farms around here were diversified, and had a lot of ground that wasn't cropped, so it was allowed to become weedy and provided both food and cover for the birds. Today, most farms here are in row crops, and intensively farmed. There is no cover for the quail, and they just aren't here anymore.

We don't have whippoorwills here but we do have the very similar nighthawks. I see them often at night sitting on the ground along desert roads. In the evenings, after sun down, you can often see and hear them flying. As they dive for bugs, their wings make a whoosh like a dive bomber.

Feral cats are a YUGE problem for quail,, I love a bobwhite's call, Back when the ol timers around here kept the flying raptors trimmed back and coyotes on the endangered list we LOTS of quail,, wasnt nothing to here 12 or more stags calling all day long in the hay fields,, Granny would woop up some quail an dumplins,if you brought her 7-8 that wasnt shotgunned,,

Would make quite a ring tone.

Rain Crow. Aka yellow billed Cuckoo

I have been hearing them the last few nights.

Common Nighthawk, that dive and “whoooosh” ain’t diving for bugs, that is the courtship/territorial display of the male. Often times if you look, he’ll be diving above a female flying down below.

The really impressive thing about nighthawks to me is that somehow, with that slow and floppy style of flight, they fly clear down to Argentina to spend the winter.

My own favorite night bird call is the Poorwill. Just brings back memories of chilly dawn mornings in the desert, first glow of dawn on the horizon.....

There is so many at the lease in central Texas, it’s one solid noise. It’s like surround sound.

They're my turkey meter.

If I walk outside and they're doing their thing it's gonna be a good morning.

If I don't hear them, or only hear one or two in the distance, I'll usually go back to bed.

Aliens chasing birds.

Whippoorwills are Awesome!