Whip-poor-will
The Whip-poor-will is never seen flying high in the sky, and the absence of white spots in the wings always distinguishes it from the Nighthawk. To find the Whip-poor-will one must go to the deep woods where, in a quiet tangle of ferns and bushes, a dark brown, silent-winged creature may fly from the leaves, to flutter a few rods farther on, and drop again to the ground. The well-known song which is given with such constancy and fervor on spring and summer nights may be written chuck, whip-poor-wee-ah, chuck, whip-poor-wee-ah. Sometimes the song is repeated two hundred times or more without cessation.
NIGHTHAWK
Chordeiles minor minor (J. R. Forster)
Nighthawk
Other Names.—Bull-Bat; Whip-poor-will (erroneous); Goatsucker; Night Jar; Mosquito Hawk.
Description.—Mouth without prominent bristles protruding in front of short bill; wings long and pointed; tail forked. Male: Upperparts black, barred and variously marked with whitish, gray, buffy, and cream-color, the flight-feathers blackish, the middle of the primaries marked with a prominent bar of white which is especially noticeable from below, in flight; tail with a white bar across all but the middle feathers; throat marked with a prominent white patch; chin and upper throat black, the feathers tipped with buffy; underparts whitish, regularly and heavily barred with blackish. Female: Similar, but lacks the white on tail, the throat-patch is buffy, and the underparts are buffy barred with blackish. Length: 10 inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A common migrant, but very local summer resident from the first week of May to mid-September; during the fall migration it is likely to occur in large flocks.
Nest.—None. Eggs: 2, white, heavily spotted with gray, placed on the ground, in the open, not, as a rule, in woods.
The Nighthawk is a familiar bird of summer evenings, when even over the cities it circles back and forth, calling as it hunts its insect food, pee-ah, pee-ah, in a rough, grating voice. In spring it courts its mate by plunging rapidly downward on set wings, producing with the vibrating primaries a booming sound which has given the bird the nickname “Bull-Bat.” It is one of our most beneficial birds. During the day it sleeps or rests on the ground, or sits lengthwise on a horizontal branch. It has recently taken to laying its eggs on gravel-roofed buildings in the city. Young Nighthawks, equipped as they are with strong feet, can run nimbly. The parents, though able to fly well, have lost much of the power of their foot-muscles and can scarcely walk.
CHIMNEY SWIFT
Chætura pelagica (Linnæus)
Other Name.—Chimney Swallow (erroneous).
Description.—Wings very long; bill and feet very small; tail of stiff feathers, all with noticeable spines at tip; sexes alike. Plumage brownish black, grayer on the throat, a deep black spot in front of eye; a ridge of feathers over the eye, forming a sort of brow. Length: 5½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A common migrant and summer resident from about the middle of April to October. It is widely distributed and occurs in all towns.
Nest.—A shallow, basket-like structure of small twigs glued together with saliva from the bird’s mouth and fastened to the bricks on the inside of a chimney, or rarely on boards on the inside of a barn, or in a hollow tree. The nest has no lining. Nests built in a chimney are usually placed well down from the top. Eggs: 4 to 6, white.
The familiar Chimney Swift, with its cheerful chittering cries and its rapid “bow and arrow” flight, is a common bird in all Pennsylvania towns. In the wilder sections—in the mountains, for instance—it is rare. It has come to depend upon chimneys almost exclusively as nesting-sites. This is a valuable bird, eating only flying insects, which it captures from the air.