By David Dyer, Curator of Natural History

As a child growing up in Columbus, the sight of more and more Nighthawks appearing in the late summer skies meant only one terrible thing that summer was waning and the start of school was getting closer! But I always enjoyed watching them swoop and dive in the late evening sky, grabbing up insects – especially mosquitoes- and listening to their peent-sounding cry. One day this week, we went back to the park where used to often see them, Whetstone Park, to play some Frisbee and enjoy the warm, late summer evening. Sure enough the Nighthawks were out, high above the trees, with their distinctive flying pattern and call. Then as we were tossing the Frisbee at dusk a Nighthawk flashed right between us, just feet off the ground! It flew right past us again and again, seemingly every time we would throw the Frisbee. Was it going for the Frisbee, instinctively responding to movement in the darkening sky? Or was it attacking us!?

The Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) is not actually a hawk, even though it has a falcon-like shape and long pointed wings, but is in the Order Caprimulgiformes. Birds in this order are sometimes called Goatsuckers because people used to think that a similar species in Europe would suck milk from goats at night. Nighthawks have a small bill but have a freakishly wide mouth for snatching all types of flying insects from the air, from small mosquitoes to grasshoppers and moths. Nighthawks are also amazing because they have one of the longest migration routes of all North American birds, flying thousands of miles well into South America!