Common Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor
Photo: Gavin Keefe Schaefer · Wikimedia · CC-BY 2.0 (licence)
Call and song
Recording 1 · flight call
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Common Nighthawk
Camouflaged to blend into daytime roosts. Intricately patterned with gray and brown. Often roosts along tree branches or on the ground. Feeds at night on large insects. Watch for them flying under bright lights at ballgames or supermarkets. Distinctive fluttering flight style, with wings usually held in a V-shape between bursts of flaps and maneuvers to snatch insects. Very similar to Lesser and Antillean Nighthawks; note voice and location of white wing patch close to base of primaries.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 47 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Anguilla
- Argentina
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Caribbean Netherlands
- Cayman Islands
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Curaçao
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- France
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Jamaica
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Spain
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Virgin Islands (U.S.)