Every evening the Nighthawks arrive, flying low, catching bugs at tree-top level and rarely flying any higher. For this reason I suspect that the species is the Lesser Nighthawk .vs. the Common Nighthawk. Peterson's' Guide to Western Birds makes this distinction, that the Lesser Nighthawk flies very low while the Common Nighthawk will often fly very high. Also, the habitat map for the Common Nighthawk seems to avoid the Sonoran Desert while the habitat map for the Lesser Nighthawk includes it. The Lesser Nighthawk is smaller than the Common Nighthawk and has the white wing patch closer to the end of the wing (although I can't make either of these distinctions myself). Any thoughts?
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Nighthawks in Tucson, AZ - Common or Lesser? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter PumaMan
- Start date
Mark Harper
World Birder
They sound quite different and the Lesser's I was watching in Scottsdale a few weeks ago were calling most of the time, so if you can go out and listen to them then you should be able to identify them. They stayed low most of the time, but I am fairly sure I have seen them flying higher previously in Costa Rica.
Mark Harper
World Birder
How close are you to them? Lesser's call in flight is quite soft and wouldn't be heard from much of a distance.
10-20 ft sometimes, when they fly right over. I'll try to listen more closely this evening.
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