Photo credit: Tom Murray, Flickr.

Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus)

Snuggled down in forested ground, the Whip-poor-will blends in perfectly with their surrounding of decomposing leaves, twigs, and brown earth. Finding themselves a star in poems and country ballads, the Whip-poor-will’s song can be heard clearly in the night, a sweet repetition, but actually seeing this nocturnal bird is a tricky task.

The Whip-poor-will is a nightjar with a rounded head and a complicated pattern of brown and gray plumage. The bird has a stout chest making it appear front-heavy. Because the plumage camouflages the bird so well in its surroundings during the day, the best time to see the bird is on a moonlit night.

Whip-poor-wills forage visually and are more active during brighter nights. This cycle of creativity has linked the bird’s breeding to the lunar calendar. Hatching tends to occur with a waxing moon, thus the first weeks of the nestling’s life are synchronous with the greatest periods of moonlight.

At night they rest on the ground or perch horizontally on low trees and fly up to catch moths and other aerial insects. They chant their loud, namesake “whip-poor-will” song continuously on spring and summer evenings. The song may seem to go on endlessly; a patient observer once counted 1,088 “whip-poor-wills” given rapidly without a break. By day, the bird sleeps on the forest floor, or on a horizontal log or branch.

Perhaps due to its elusiveness and humans catching only glimpses of the Whip-poor-will at night, lore has formed around the Whip-poor-will and its bird family Caprimulgidae. Dating back to Aristotle who is credited with creating the bird’s nickname “goatsucker.” In AD 77, Pliny the Elder wrote of the bird as a night thief who visits the goat pens at night to suck on goats’ udders.

Later lore attributes the Whip-poor-will as the harbinger of death and is featured in HP Lovecrafts’s The Dunwich Horror and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Whip-poor-wills are visitors to Central Texas. Look and listen for them when they pass through during spring migration.

Compiled by Lindsey Hernandez. Sources: eBird, All About Birds, Texas Breeding World Atlas and Sibley Guide.