Re: [cobirds] Lesser or common nighthawks?

[Joe Roller]

Thanks for the photo, which is of a flock of Common NIghthawks, Marcia.

A field mark that is useful is the shape of the triangle formed
by the white bar and both edges of the wing tip. In the photo
that triangle is isosceles, as Common NIghthawks show), vs the equilateral
triangle that Lesser Nighthawks
show. That can be hard to see in the field, so the photo helps a lot.
Plus Lesser Nighthawks occur in CO as singletons (up to two at favored sites
like the Nucla Sewage Ponds, where they are almost annual); the east slope
flock of twenty you saw is a common occurrence
for migrating Common NIghthawks.

Those photos are actually good at sorting out the two species.

Joe Roller, Denver


On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 5:41 PM Marcia Wade - Lafayette, Boulder County <
marciaew...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I observed a flock of what I believe to be lesser nighthawks July 23rd at
> about 9:00 p.m.over the Aquarius Trailhead on the Coal Creek Trail. There
> were about 20 of them, and they swooped around the fields on the south side
> of Highway 42 (Empire Rd.) for fewer than five minutes and then flew off,
> heading southest.  The pic attached is really bad, being as it was almost
> completely dark when I took it, but the white stripes on the wings are
> plainly visible, and appear to be too close to the wing tips to be common
> nighthawks, although the wings seem pointier (if there is such a word) like
> a common nighthawk's.
>
> [image: nighthawks 3.JPG]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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[cobirds] Lesser or common nighthawks?

[Marcia Wade - Lafayette, Boulder County]

I observed a flock of what I believe to be lesser nighthawks July 23rd at 
about 9:00 p.m.over the Aquarius Trailhead on the Coal Creek Trail. There 
were about 20 of them, and they swooped around the fields on the south side 
of Highway 42 (Empire Rd.) for fewer than five minutes and then flew off, 
heading southest.  The pic attached is really bad, being as it was almost 
completely dark when I took it, but the white stripes on the wings are 
plainly visible, and appear to be too close to the wing tips to be common 
nighthawks, although the wings seem pointier (if there is such a word) like 
a common nighthawk's.

[image: nighthawks 3.JPG]







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