Minnesota's Whippoorwill - by Tom Malone

The Whippoorwill

by

Tom Malone *

(Star Tribune, 8/13/1989)

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[ The low-flying whippoorwill: big-mouth of a summer’s eve ]

Those lucky enough to hear the cry of the whippoorwill in the summer night never forget the experience.

Suddenly from what usually seems an extremely close range, comes a piercing, whistled “whip-poor-Will,” repeated again and again.

Fifty to a hundred repetitions are common; the calls are repeated about a second apart.  As Thoreau wrote in 1840:

“The note of the whip-poor-will, borne over the fields, is the voice with which the woods and moonlight woo me.”

The bird usually calls in the evening after sunset, and again in the hours before dawn.  In the middle hours of the night the whippoorwill hunts the flying insects that comprise its food.

The bird hunts by flying low to the ground, silently like an owl.  It looks like a big moth as it flies.  It simply flies about, its large, open mouth “scooping” insects from the air.

The whippoorwill is closely related to the nighthawk common to our cities and towns; like its relative, it has a large mouth, which opens to a point behind the eyes.

The cavernous scoop enables it to catch and eat all types of flying, nocturnal insects, together with moths, beetles, crickets, and caterpillars.

During the day, the bird roosts on the ground or on a horizontal branch.

It does not hide; it does not have to.  Its protective coloration makes it look like a clump of leaves or a piece of dead wood.  The bird simply sits perfectly still unless the intruder is going to walk directly over it.

More than one person has been startled out of his wits by a large brown “moth” rising directly under his footfall.

The whippoorwill will also nest on the ground.  No nest is built. Instead, the eggs are laid directly on the ground in the woods.

The eggs, incubated by the female, hatch in about 20 days.  The young birds are flying and feeding 20 days after birth.

Males and females look very much alike except for the color of the sides of the tail.  The male flashes white and the female buff.

Whippoorwills are often very tame.  They can be closely approached if the observer waits and moves quietly.

They love to take “dust baths” and often can be seen doing so on old country dirt roads.

Interestingly, the bird’s huge, seemingly black eyes shine red when light is reflected from them.

Whippoorwills are locally common throughout the more heavily wooded parts of Minnesota.

They are most common in the southeast along the Mississippi River but are also very common through the north central part of the state.

I recently found them very common in the woods of Camp Ripley, north of Little Falls.  Their whistled singing was heard throughout the camp; the soldiers of our state National Guard’s 47^th Military Police company were treated to whippoorwills on a nightly basis!

I found it delightful, but the more practical members of the company complained that the “noise” cut into what little sleep time was available.

The bird is rare in the taiga of northeast Minnesota and absent from the western part of the state.  It winters from the very southern part of the United States south into northern South America.

For some reason, the bird is virtually never seen during migration.

Like most insect-eaters, whippoorwills will not be with us much longer.  Soon they will leave for the winter.  So venture into the summer night, and listen for them.

You will know when you hear it, and you will be glad you did.

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* Minneapolis lawyer Tom Malone has loved, studied and watched birds for more than 30 years.