Eastern Whip-poor-will

Burlington. ON. April 28, 2023. Those of us with a decent reputation as a birder periodically get asked for bird identifications. If you’re lucky it’s something well described, and that sustains your expert status, but often as not the description is just unhelpful. My late friend Anthony always threw the most obscure and improbable descriptions at me.  What, he asked, Flies like a bat out of hell, sounds and looks like an F16 firing its machine guns?” Fortunately, knowing from where he was writing, I was able to guess at Belted Kingfisher and with that he was happy.

Tonight around 5, my wife brought me a photo just received from a friend. ‘What is this?’ was the demand alongside a picture. I looked, and sat bolt upright.  It was either an Eastern Whip-poor-will or a Common Nighthawk; either way not the sort of bird most people would notice on your way to work, or at any other time. I wondered where this picture had come from? A clipping or maybe a clue from a quiz game.

A bit of enquiry revealed that it was at the friend’s work and it was still there, as it had been all afternoon. One of her colleagues happened to notice it through a large window and thought it was just a new fallen log where logs don’t belong.

So we raced over and I was lucky to photograph this Eastern Whip-poor-will trying to stay hidden. It was in a courtyard, at ground level and just outside a large window. There was no better spot to get photos than a bare three feet away, inside and out of the rain. I am certain this bird is a migrant who stopped here early this morning and found a secure daytime roosting spot. They are not uncommon where they breed (a little north of here and well away from urban areas) but they are rarely seen.

So this Eastern Whip-poor-will is my lucky, right-place-at-the-right-time, Bird of the Day.