Common Poorwill

About the Common Poorwill

The Common Poorwill is the smallest nightjar in North America and one of the most remarkable birds on the continent: it is the only bird known to hibernate. In cold weather a poorwill can tuck itself into a rock crevice and drop its body temperature and heartbeat to a torpor that can last for weeks.

By night it hunts moths from the ground or a low perch, and by day it vanishes, its mottled gray-and-black plumage matching desert gravel so perfectly that you can stare straight at one and not see it. Its mournful two-note call, poor-will, gives the bird its name and carries far across the desert at dusk.

This one was found hunkered down near Frijole Ranch in Guadalupe Mountains National Park as evening came on.