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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

What Kind of bird am I? (1 Viewer)

Some kind of Nighthawk? (But my American birdbook is at work, so I can't do better than that!)
 
Hi Chris,

Hard to judge, but I'd say - compared to the respective hands holding them - the two birds are both about the same size, and too big for Poorwill (which would surely also have a much bigger head compared to body size?)

Michael
 
Your probably right Michael. To be honest, even though the 'caprimulgs' are my favourite family, I know very little about their i.d. features. That said the bird is in an outstretched and alert posture so the head size/shape might not be characteristic of the large headed appearance of the smaller American nightjars. Imagine it relaxed and 'retracted' and all of a sudden the bird will be much smaller in appearance.......now if we had the song to go by........
 
I'm going to end up looking like a right pillock here, but I've taken a couple of liberties with the two photos (apologies to the photographers) and re-sized them so that the hands holding the birds are similarly proportioned. Even accounting for the differences in plumage (nightjars are very variable anyways), I think you must admit that 'the mystery bird' is considerably smaller than the one identified as Whip-poor-will.......
 

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Being from Phoenix, Chickie might be slipping us a Buff-collared Nightjar, the local speciality; but frankly I don't see any primaries at all-- just that one obvious tertial, whose pattern doesn't seem to match anything very well (C. Pauraque the nearest). And the glare from the flash is so awful that I can't see enough of facial pattern or scaps. I have no idea.
 
I've given up myself. Tried to make it into several species but none seem quite right. Heck, I was even measuring my own hand for comparison.

dennis
 
It's got me really puzzled, too, so I took the liberty of trying to improve the colour on the image. Perhaps Chickie could give us the location that the bird was caught.....;)
 

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I'm going to take a stab at this and say that based on its size compared to an average human hand makes it too large for a common poorwill; the lack of any obvious emerging wing pattern (such as the whip-poor-will would have), and the head not being unusually large, it looks like a juvie lesser nighthawk (Chordeiles acutipennis). They're also very common in Phoenix.

I'd love to know if this bird was caught inside what looks like a house under construction. You don't see these guys flying until after dark so was wondering if it was roosting inside.
 
Has anyone noticed that Chickie has only ever made this one post and never replied with any hints or comments on the puzzle!! Will we ever know the true identity?
 
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