Uncommon in NH
Common Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor · Nightjars (Caprimulgidae)
- Status
- Scarce and declining breeder; a reliable, concentrated migrant in late August
- Length
- 8.7–9.4 in
- Regions
- Merrimack · Conn. River · Lakes
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What you notice first
On an August evening, long-winged birds twisting and jinking high over the river in loose flocks, each showing a white bar across the wing near the tip.
Voice
A nasal, buzzy "peent" in flight over the breeding grounds; on migration they are usually silent. The male's display adds a hollow "boom" from air rushing through the wings as he pulls out of a dive.
Where & when
Late August into early September, the hour before dark, over the Merrimack at Franklin Falls and Concord, and over the Connecticut valley — anywhere with a river or a big open sky to funnel them.
Not a hawk, and barely nocturnal — a nightjar, active at dusk and dawn, hunting insects on the wing with a tiny bill that opens into an enormous gape. In flight it looks all wing: long, pointed, bent at the wrist, with that white slash near each tip and a jerky, erratic style like a big bat.
As a breeder in New Hampshire it’s in trouble. It nests on the ground in burned or gravelly openings and once used flat gravel rooftops in cities; both are disappearing, and aerial-insect numbers are down. Scattered pairs hang on in pine barrens and recent burns.
The late-August migration is the reliable show. On the right evening you can stand at Franklin Falls and watch a few hundred pass in an hour, all heading south down the valley.