Nighthawk in neighbors' tree

[Lisa Millbank]

The scrub-jays started fussing around our neighbors' small Douglas-fir this evening, as if they'd noticed a predator.  We scanned the tree with our binoculars to try to spot what they were yelling at.  Finally Don saw it -- a Common Nighthawk, trying to sleep on a branch.  What a surprise!

We were pretty sure that the jays didn't really know what they'd found, but they thought it might be something scary that they needed to scream about, since the nighthawk's large eyes and cryptic plumage look somewhat owl-like.  By the time Don noticed it, the jays seemed to have decided that it wasn't a threat.

The nighthawk's primaries have white/buffy fringes which, according to our field guide, are a feature of juveniles.

We live in NE Corvallis, a little more than a mile from the river and its gravel bars where nighthawks sometimes nest.  But even though a few may be present fairly close by throughout the summer, we typically only hear them from our yard a few times per year.  I never thought one would roost in a tree next door.  Maybe it was just a convenient stop during this nighthawk's southbound migration.

Lisa Millbank