THE LONESOME WHIP-POOR-WILL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICA'S MOST ICONIC BIRD

[2mi...@gmail.com]

DFO's monthly program for April — Monday, April 29, 7 p.m. MDT. Register for the webinar. 

DFO member Jared Del Rosso will explore the largely untold story of the Whip-poor-will, an almost mystical icon of early American culture. The species figured prominently in the seasonal lives of a largely still agrarian-oriented land. American musicians, poets and writers made the Whip-poor-will a legend. Country singers transformed the birds into icons of lonesomeness and rural life. Poets and nature writers wondered about the species’ strange, menacing name. Horror writers spun Whip-poor-wills into the stuff of nightmares.

But today, they’re on the brink of forgotten. Since the 1970s, Eastern Whip-poor-will numbers have fallen by more than two-thirds.  

[Jared Del Rosso]

Just a little plug -- I'm super excited to share this work with the Denver birding community! If you're able to attend, you'll see a few remarkable videos and photos of Eastern Whip-poor-wills and Common Poorwills, which biologists who work with these species were generous enough to permit me to use. I'll also describe Whip-poor-wills in 5 words (kinda sorta), two of which are rarer things than spotting a Whip-poor-will. And I'll share with you some of the lore surrounding the year's first Whip-poor-will and some of the early accounts (from the 1950s) of people documenting the species' decline. 

The presentation is well-timed, too! Poorwill are returning to the Denver metro area (and there are already reports of them). So you can go out the next morning or evening and try to hear your own first-of-the-year nightjar.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO