Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

Nesting Habitat:
      (Jack Pine (Regen))
      or (Conifer Plantations (Regen))
      or Fields/Pastures
      or Upland Brush
      or Savanna
      or Shoreline/Mudflat
      or Man-made Structure (gravel-roofed buildings)
      or Rock Bluffs

Foraging occurs across the NEIGHBORHOOD

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

Habitat: As solitary ground nesters, Common Nighthawks require open spaces with minimal vegetation, the barer the better. Such areas include recent forest clearings, pine barrens, burned-over lands, gravel outcrops, cultivated fields, and beaches. Occasional nesting also occur atop stumps or fence rails within these habitats. Atlas Habitat Survey data registered a high proportion of northern Lower Peninsula occurrence in young pine forest/savanna and pine plantations. Since about 1869, when mansard and flat rooftops were introduced in American cities, the birds have widely adopted these tarred and graveled surfaces for urban nest sites.

Habitat: Breeding: Open areas such as plowed fields, gravel beaches, barren areas with rocky soil, railroad right-of-ways, large woodland clearings, cities. Nesting in cities restricted to gravel roads. Most Massachusetts birds nest on gravel roofs.

Habitat: Open country to mountains; open pine woods; often seen in the air over cities, towns. In habits any kind of open or semi-open terrain, including clearings in deciduous or conifer forest, prairie country, farmland, suburban areas, city centers.

Diet: Insects. Feeds mostly on flying insects, including beetles, moths, grasshoppers, flies, mosquitoes, and many others. Will feed heavily on swarms of winged ants.

Nest: Site is on ground on bare open soil, often in sandy place; also laid on gravel roof, sometimes on top of stump or other raised object. No nest built eggs laid on flat surface.