Chordeiles minor
A Common Nighthawk sounds like a buzzy, nasal peent coming from high overhead on summer evenings, often above city rooftops, ballfields and parking-lot lights. Listen too for its wing boom, a sudden whooshing roar like a car speeding past, made by a male pulling out of a steep dive. It is a summer visitor, gone to South America for the winter.
Every sound the Common Nighthawk makes
2 sounds to learn, each with a recording.
Peent
Mid pitch · Repeated
A single short, nasal, buzzy note, peent or beer, called again and again as the bird loops and flutters overhead. It has an electric, kazoo-like edge and carries well over traffic noise. Because it comes from the sky, it often seems to drift as the bird moves.
“peent”
Late spring and summer, mostly from about half an hour before sunset until an hour after, and again around dawn; sometimes on cloudy days.
Wing Boom
Low pitch · Single note
Not a voice at all. A displaying male climbs, then dives steeply toward the ground and flexes his wings as he swoops out of it, so air rushing through his wing feathers makes a deep, quick whoosh-boom. People compare it to a race car passing or to a distant bellowing bull, which is where the old name bullbat comes from.
Breeding season. Males dive near females, at intruders, and sometimes at people walking close to a nest.
What to listen for
- A buzzy peent from the sky, not the ground: look up for long, pointed wings with a white bar across the outer wing.
- A peent or two, then a sudden whooshing boom near rooftop height, is a male's display dive.
- In town, listen over flat gravel roofs, where some nighthawks still nest, and around lit parking lots, where they hunt insects on warm evenings.
- In late August and September, scan the sky at dusk for loose flocks drifting south, sometimes feeding around stadium lights and billboards.
Birds that sound like the Common Nighthawk
By ear: Woodcock gives a very similar buzzy peent, but from the ground in a field, then rises on twittering wings and chirps on the way down. A nighthawk's peent always comes from a bird already in the air.
Lesser Nighthawk
By ear: Lesser Nighthawk doesn't peent or boom. Its main sound is a low, toad-like trill lasting several seconds, plus a bleating, laughing whinny in flight.
By ear: Antillean's flight call is a quick burst of two to seven harsh notes, like pitty-pit-pit or killikadick, instead of a single peent.
When and where you'll hear it
When
Most vocal from May to August, at dawn, during the day and at dusk.
- Dawn
- Daytime
- Dusk
Where
Breeds across most of the lower 48, in cities, prairies, beaches, open pine woods and burned or logged forest, though it is scarce in coastal and southern California and the hottest low deserts. It arrives from about April in the South to May in the North and spends the winter in South America.
- Southwest
- In the low deserts and along the Mexican border, Lesser Nighthawk is the more common summer nighthawk. A long toad-like trill at dusk is Lesser; a buzzy peent from the sky is Common.
- South Florida and the Keys
- Antillean Nighthawk breeds here in summer alongside Common; the call is the only easy way to tell them apart.
- Cities
- Open country
- Woods
- Coasts
Practice the Common Nighthawk in the app
Practice the “peent” until you can name it without looking. Wings & Whistles plays it in 2 interactive listening lessons, mixed with the birds you’ll hear around it.
How to recognize the Common Nighthawk by sight
Common Nighthawks are medium-sized birds with long, pointed wings and a distinctive white bar visible in flight. They have cryptic gray-brown plumage with complex patterns that provide excellent camouflage when resting on the ground or on branches.
Similar-looking species (3)
- Lesser Nighthawk: Smaller size with more rounded wings
- Common Poorwill: Smaller size with shorter wings
- Chimney Swift: Smaller with uniformly dark plumage
Common Nighthawk sounds FAQ
When does the Common Nighthawk call?
The Common Nighthawk is most vocal from May to August, mostly at dawn, during the day and at dusk.