Species: Chordeiles minor
Common Nighthawk
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Caprimulgiformes
Family
Caprimulgidae
Genus
Chordeiles
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Bacurau-Americano - Chotacabras Zumbón, Añapero Migratorio - engoulevent d'Amérique
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Caprimulgiformes - Caprimulgidae - Chordeiles - are treated as conspecific by some authors (AOU 1983; see Stevenson et al. 1983 for differences) and constitute a superspecies (AOU 1998). See Dickerman (1990) for information on plumage variation of juveniles in North America (some discussion of subspecies).
Ecology and Life History
Short General Description
A crepuscular bird, a nightjar (nighthawk).
Migration
false - false - true - Migrates through Costa Rica September-early November and March-April (Stiles and Skutch 1989). In Colombia, uncommon to fairly common fall migrant late August-late November, uncommon to rare in spring migration March-April (Hilty and Brown 1986).
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Feeds on flying insects (e.g., mosquitoes, moths, beetles, flies, caddisflies). Forages at night or during the day. Catches insects high in the air or close to the ground. May forage on insects around artificial lights. Young are fed insects by regurgitation.
Reproduction Comments
Clutch size 2. Incubation by female, about 19 days. Nestlings semi-precocial, tended by both parents, independent in about 30 days (Harrison 1978).
Ecology Comments
Interspecifically territorial toward the Antillean nighthawk in the Florida Keys (Ehrlich et al. 1992).
Length
24
Weight
64
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
2009-03-17
Global Status Last Changed
1996-12-02
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Nesting range extends from southern Yukon, southern Mackenzie, northern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba, northern Ontario, central Quebec, southern Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia south virtually throughout North America to California, south-central Nevada, Arizona, southern Texas, Gulf Coast, and southern Florida in the United States; also Middle America from Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico, south through central Guatemala to western Honduras, and along Atlantic slope locally from Tamaulipas through southern Veracruz, and in Belize, eastern Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, and possibly in southeastern Colombia in South America (Poulin et al. 1996).<br><br>During the northern winter the range includes South America south to northern Argentina (Poulin et al. 1996). <br><br>In migration this species occurs throughout Middle America and the West Indies.
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

