Common Nighthawk

[Greg Pasquariello]

About 8PM I heard a single Common Nighthawk over north Downtown Littleton, right along the Platte.  Way early, no?

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Greg Pasquariello
Littleton, CO

[Nick Komar]

Yes but not too early for a displaying woodcock. The vocal note, uttered from high overhead, is very similar, and the location near the River is compatible. If it is a territorial woodcock, it should call again tomorrow night as well and maybe also predawn. 

For readers unfamiliar with American woodcock, it.is an eastern bird considered accidental in Colorado, but possibly overlooked. An early spring migrant was seen by many last month in El Paso County. 

Nick Komar

Fort Collins

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[Deborah Carstensen]

Okay, I thought I heard a nighthawk over my house a couple of evenings ago.  It was a very brief call, but it certainly made me  turn my head and look up to the skies! It would be amazing if it were Woodcock but then again it would be way cool for it to be a nighthawk so early. 

      I live in unincorporated Arapahoe County, just a mile or so west of the Platte River near downtown Littleton. Deb Carstensen, unincorporated Arapahoe County

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On Mar 13, 2014, at 9:31 PM, Greg Pasquariello <gr...@pasq.net> wrote:

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[Greg Pasquariello]

I actually did consider woodcock.... I'm from NJ and very familiar.  Though it's been a while, I recall woodcock as a much "drier" call than nighthawk, which has always seemed more musical to me.  

I'm certainly not ruling it out though.  If anyone wants to go tonight to check, it was along the Platte river just south of where Prince St crosses Santa Fe, and the high tension wires run along the river.  I was in the parking lot of those town homes there.

I might head up there this evening when there's still some light.

Regards

-Greg Pasquariello

Littleton, CO

[David Ely]

Co birders,

The other very real possibility is common goldeneyes flying up the river calling. They can sound almost exactly like common nighthawks.

David Ely
Salem, MA

[Greg Pasquariello]

That’s interesting, I hadn’t considered that.  I just listened to a recording and I concur; they do sound similar.  I don’t have enough of the memory to say that was what I heard, but it’s certainly more likely than either a 2 month early nighthawk or a woodcock.

The call was fairly high (altitude-wise) and that helped it sound very much like a nighthawk, but there’s no reason it couldn’t have been a passing goldeneye.

Regards

-Greg Pasquariello

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Roxborough, CO

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[Nathan Pieplow]

I am unaware that Common Goldeneyes ever give their nighthawk-like calls in flight or at night.  These are not the equivalent of other duck quacks; I believe they are only given by males displaying on the water, while throwing their heads back.  Many ducks do give display sounds during courtship chase flights, but I think this would be quite unlikely at night or at high altitude in any species, and BNA's description of the display flight in Common Goldeneye appears to correspond to the very short-range "leapfrogging" flight I've seen them do from the back to the front of courting groups on the water, without vocalizing.  Furthermore, male Common Goldeneyes make loud whistles with their wings in flight (usually?  always?), and if you were close enough to hear the call, you likely would have been close enough to hear the wing whistles as well.

If the sound came from high in the air, we may be able to rule out American Woodcock as well, because according to BNA and Sibley, they only make those nighthawk-like "peent" sounds from the ground, BEFORE taking to the wing in their nocturnal display flights.  The sounds they make in the air are high-pitched chirping twitters (made by their wings).

If you hear a Common Nighthawk in Colorado prior to late May, there's an extremely good chance you're hearing an imitation, probably by European Starlings, which have fooled me several times -- at least during the day.  A call from high altitude at night is more consistent with a nighthawk, but the date is more than eight weeks earlier than the species would be expected in the area. 

Nathan Pieplow
Boulder

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