Air Date: Week of September 25, 2020

Henry David Thoreau called the whip-poor-will “a bird . . . of the night side of the woods, where you may hear the whip-poor-will in your dreams.” (Photo: Tom Murray, Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

It’s officially fall in the Northern Hemisphere, and for those of us in the Eastern half of the country it’s a fine time to listen for the evening call of whip-poor-wills as they get ready to breed. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein has more.

Transcript

BASCOMB: Well it’s officially fall in the Northern hemisphere and for those of us in the Eastern half of the country it’s a fine time to listen for the evening call of whip-poor-wills as they get ready to breed. BirdNote’s Michael Stein has more.

BirdNote®   
Eastern Whip-poor-will – Bird of the Night Side of the Woods

[Whip-poor-will song throughout]
In September of 1851, Henry David Thoreau wrote:
“The Whip-poor-wills now begin to sing in earnest about half an hour before sunrise, as if making haste to improve the short time that is left them.
[Whip-poor-will song]
…They sing for several hours in the early part of the night, then sing again just before sunrise.”
Clearly and continuously, the bird announces its name [Whip-poor-will song].
In summer to early fall, Eastern Whip-poor-wills breed in woodlands of eastern North America. Their camouflaged plumage blends seamlessly with dead leaves on the forest floor. At dawn and dusk and all through moonlit nights, whip-poor-wills sally out from tree branches to hawk flying insects.

Woodland habitat has greatly diminished for Eastern Whip-poor-wills, as forests become more fragmented. The National Audubon Society lists them among the Top 20 Common Birds in Decline. Protecting and restoring large expanses of forest are crucial for many forest species, including the whip-poor-will.
[Whip-poor-will song and crickets]
It remains, as Thoreau described: “…a bird . . . of the night side of the woods, where you may hear the whip-poor-will in your dreams.”
I'm Michael Stein.
###

Written by Frances Wood; revised by Bob Sundstrom
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Song of the Whip-poor-will (Eastern) [84871] recorded by W.L. Hershberger. BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producers: Chris Peterson/Dominic Black
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org September 2015 Narrator: Michael Stein

Whip-poor-will on branch - Laura Gooch https://www.flickr.com/photos/lgooch/6991532244
Whip-poor-will on ground - Jerry Oldenettel https://www.flickr.com/photos/jroldenettel/6199157613

http://birdnote.org/show/whip-poor-will

BASCOMB: For pictures, fly on over to the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.

 

Links

Find this story on the BirdNote® website

More about the whip-poor-will from the Audubon Guide to North American Birds

Learn more at All About Birds