#chuck-will's-widow

Migratory May Day 9: Chuck-Will's-Widow

Chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis)

This is a chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) that we have at the rehab! This one lost a wing so it can't be released. If we can acclimate it to humans, it will likely become an ambassador bird (don't quote me on that, though). They're a nocturnal species and they catch food while flying, so they have a HUGE mouth and an almost sort of hissing sound that is very startling at first but very fun once you get used to it.

I just thought it was a cool bird and wanted to share.

So earlier this week I was in a tizzy because we stumbled upon TWO Chuck-will’s-widow nests at one of our nest box grids. Chuck-will’s-widows are Nightjars, the most cryptic bird family in the world. They are largely nocturnal and are masters at camouflage, so they’re extremely difficult to see. Chucks and Whippoorwills spend most of the day asleep on the ground posing as part of the leaf litter in open forest.

In fact we never would have found these nests if the birds hadn’t flushed. We accidentally got within a couple meters of them and imagine our surprise when they suddenly exploded up from the ground!

Anyway, here’s a crappy photo I took of one that landed in the open with my phone:

And here are much better photos taken by our intern who had an actual camera:

When we went back to put camera traps on the nests, one of the birds did the broken wing routine to try to lure us away. I got some video of it with my phone.

Hopefully we get some great baby Chuck photos in the future!