Night Voices - Nightjars

BirdNote^®  

Night Voices: Nightjars

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.  

[Crickets]

As darkness descends on a May evening, the voices of many birds go quiet. 

But for some birds, especially those known as nightjars, the music is just beginning.

In the moonlit shadows of an Eastern hardwood forest, an Eastern Whip-poor-will shouts out its name. [Whip-poor-will call, repeated] 

The same evening in a Southeastern woodland, we hear the loud calls of a Chuck-will’s-widow. [Chuck-will’s-widow calls, repeated]

West of the Rockies, the voice of a Common Poorwill echoes across a canyon. [Common Poorwill calls, repeated] 

Along the Rio Grande River at the southern tip of Texas, a Common Pauraque calls from the thorn scrub. [Common Pauraque calls, repeated] 

And, in the desert night on the Arizona-Mexico border, a Buff-collared Nightjar repeats its Spanish nickname, Tucuchillo. [Buff-collared Nightjar calls, repeated]

You can hear all the calls again, and again [smile], at BirdNote.org. 

I’m Mary McCann and today’s show is brought to you by The Bobolink Foundation.  

[Common Poorwill]

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Call of the Eastern Whip-poor-will [#84871] W.L. Hershberger; call of the Chuck-will’s-widow [105213], call of the Common Poorwill [40634], call of the Common Pauraque [87464] and call of the Buff-collared Nightjar [40510] all recorded by G.A. Keller. Single cricket by Nigel Tucker.
Crickets [Essentials 64] recorded by Gordon Hempton of QuietPlanet.com.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org  May 2013/2019/2022  Narrator: Mary McCann
ID#  sound-19-2013-05-01 sound-19