Keep your ears open at night for the well-camouflaged eastern whip-poor-will: a rarely seen (but often heard!) summertime visitor.
Eastern Whip-poor-will Identification
The best way to identify an eastern whip-poor-will might be to keep your ears open. While it’s possible to stumble upon one during the day, they’re most active and easily identified at night as they belt out their classic call.
If you do happen to spot this nightjar — part of the same family as nighthawks — you’ll see a robin-sized bird with feathers in varying shades of brown, tan, and white. Other easily identifying features include large eyes, a round, elongated-looking head, a whitish “collar” along the neck, and long wings. They blend in remarkably well with tree bark, so you’ll have to observe closely.
Range and Habitat
Eastern whip-poor-wills visit most of the eastern United States during breeding season. They’re heard during the summer months, when they call repeatedly — whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will! — at night. They’ll stop by the southeastern states during migration and in winter. They were once considered the same species as the Mexican whip-poor-will, but they were split in 2010.
Look and listen for eastern whip-poor-wills in leafy, dry, deciduous forests. They tend to avoid forests with extensive underbrush or coniferous forests. They usually appear near open areas, and in forests with sandy soil.
Diet: What Do Eastern Whip-Pool-Wills Eat?
As is the case with many summertime backyard visitors, eastern whip-poor-wills prefer to eat insects. Their diet includes moths, beetles, and mosquitoes — for which we humans owe them gratitude — which they catch while in flight and swallow whole. They start flying in search of food after sunset, and they stop before dawn. Occasionally, they’ll pluck bugs off of logs or from leaves.
Nesting Habits
Whip-poor-wills do not build nests. Instead, the female lays a clutch of two eggs directly on the forest floor, where they are well-hidden among the leaf litter. Incubation lasts for approximately three weeks, and about one week later, young leave the “nest.”
Eastern Whip-poor-will Calls
You’re more likely to hear this bird than to see one. Its strange-sounding name comes from its call, which sounds like a trilling cry of “whip-poor-will!” The last syllable rises in pitch. This phrase repeats continuously, often for hours on end.
Psst—whip-poor-wills aren’t the only birds that sing at night.
According to the National Audubon Society, one observer counted more than a thousand whip-poor-wills given without pause. Hilariously, the bird’s scientific name — antrostomus vociferus — also references its propensity for constant vocalization. (Merriam-Webster defines “vociferous” as “marked by insistent, vehement outcry.”)
Listen to the eastern whip-poor-will’s call.
Bird sounds courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Sources
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Eastern Whip-poor-will: Life History“
- National Audubon Society, “Field Guide: Eastern Whip-poor-will“
