Chuck-Will's-Widow? Or Whip-Poor-Will? What do you think?
Sitting in my home office yesterday afternoon I found myself becoming aware of, and increasingly annoyed with the cacaphonous sound of blue jays and mockingbirds harrassing some unfortunate creature in the laurel oak just outside my window.
I peeked out but was unable to see what I assumed would be either a Cooper’s hawk or a wayward possum helplessly dodging the flock of assailants. They were relentless. I grabbed my camera and went out into the back yard.
Finally I managed to see a very dark bird, rather well obscured by the new spring flush of growth on the tree. My first thought was — screech owl.
In case it flew, I snapped the above photo, so I’d at least have something to show. I maneuvered on the crunchy dry oak leaves, certain that I would scare it away. Finally I got a slightly better glimpse of it and snapped off another shot before it flew. Unfortunately, the auto-focus preferred to focus on the foreground leaves, so the bird is slightly out-of-focus.
What do you think it is? It is either a Chuck-Will’s Widow or a Whip-Poor-Will. When it flew, it dove down from its perch, which is about 10 feet off the ground, to about 4 feet, where it flew, falcon-like, with russet colored wings, across the street. It was a powerful and fast flier. It was a fairly large bird, or at least it seemed so in flight. Still, I can’t decide.
The toad-like, out-of-focus head of the mystery bird.
So, what is it?
