Lesser Nighthawk

About the Lesser Nighthawk

The Lesser Nighthawk is the desert cousin of the Common Nighthawk - a slightly smaller, lower-flying bird of the brush country and border deserts that replaces its relative across much of south and far west Texas in summer.

Telling the two apart is a classic Texas exercise. The Lesser flies with a floppier, more moth-like action, usually low over the brush or water rather than high overhead, and the pale bar sits closer to the wingtip. Most usefully, it does not boom or "peent": its voice is a strange, soft toad-like trill that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere in the dusk.

By day Lesser Nighthawks sit invisible on the ground or along a branch, relying on plumage that matches caliche and dead leaves. At dawn and dusk they patrol for insects over stock tanks, resacas, and desert washes, mouths agape.

They nest on bare gravel and dirt with no construction at all, trusting camouflage completely. On a warm South Texas evening, the sight of these long-winged shapes coursing low over the thorn scrub is as much a part of the borderlands as the mesquite itself.