*Photo by Sebastian Casarez, Common Nighthawk
Throughout late Summer evenings in parking lots and open fields you might notice a medium-sized slim bird flying over with long-pointed wings, flies with an erratic bat-like flight and make a loud "peent" call as it's flying...this bird is called a Common Nighthawk.
*Photo by Sebastian Casarez, Common Nighthawk
Common Nighthawks are abundant in Texas during April-October. They spend the Summer in North America and they spend the Winter in South America. Common Nighthawks are aerial insectivores, which means they feed on flying insects while on the wing. Nighthawks can be found hovering over open fields or parking lots. Especially, during nightime they will be hovering under spotlights to catch insects. During the daytime you might find nighthawks roosting on your backyard fences, trees, roofs, or even on your car!
Male and female Common Nighthawks look almost identical but, except males have white throats and broad white wing bars while females have buffy throats and the white wing bars aren't so bold as the males.
*Photo by Sebastian Casarez, Common Nighthawk, Male
Nighthawks are closely related to Nightjars which include: Common Poorwill, Chuck-will's-widow, Whip-poor-will, and others. Unlike most nightjars, Nighthawks catch their prey by wing. They will hover over fields to catch insects. While other Nightjars will do the "sit-and-wait" technique, which is when the bird stays sit on the ground and when a flying insect passes by they will leap up and catch the insect with their extremely, large mouth.
Common Nighthawks like any other nightjar don't build nests. Instead, they lay their eggs on flat ground (rocks, gravel, flat gravel rooftops, etc...) making themselves easy targets for predation. The eggs and hatchlings are so well camouflage that sometimes predators can't see them at all.
The next time you are sitting outside in your backyard porch during the Summer evenings in Texas try to hear the loud "peent" call of one of my favorite Summer bird migrant in Texas, the Common Nighthawk.
Happy Birding,
Sebastian Casarez
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