#poorwills

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Eared Poorwill

Photo: Luke Seitz

"Small nightjar of brushy oak woodland in foothills and highlands; endemic to west Mexico. Heard far more often than seen. Feeds from perches on the ground (including quiet roads) and in trees. Usually sings from a concealed perch. Sexes look similar: cryptic gray-brown to rusty overall with a rather plain face and throat, white 'vicar’s collar,' white spots on the wings, and narrow white tail tip. Its 'ears' are erectile head feathers rarely visible in the field. Loud, resonant whistled 'preeOO' song is repeated steadily."

- eBird

[herpsandbirds]

nightjar go :0

(do not say, "so does your mom" don't say it...)

Yes, I love watching them hunt!

Here's a favorite for you...

Common Poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii) getting a drink of water, family Caprimulgidae, order Caprimulgiformes, western USA

photograph by Scott Linstead

[alonglistofbirds]

[2625/11080] Common poorwill - Phalaenoptilus nuttallii

Order: Caprimulgiformes (nightjars) Family: Caprimulgidae Subfamily: Caprimulginae (typical nightjars)

Photo credit: Ryan Merrill via Macaulay Library

[zoologica42]

This Is a Catboy.

photo credit: Ryan Zucker

[thegalleonsnest]

After watching some Bear And Breakfast, I have determined that the cast of critters is amazing. Will is my favorite :) (plus like two smaller doodles squeezed in)

[elle8n]

‘Don’t let him get too close’

Will Graham - PTSD

Insomnia, Paranoia, Delusion, Hallucination... 

[paolo-streito-1264]

Jody Poorwill.

[gelastocoridae]

This season on wildlife rehab (so far):

I finally got rabies vaccinated this Feb! Here I come, vector species *rubbing my hands together*

Very first babies of the season were three horned larks who threw me, the "bird-whisperer" as one coworker insists, completely for a loop. The last time we had a single horned lark was two years ago

Also one absolutely teeny house finch. Pink and fuzzy, profoundly little (he's fully feathered now and learning to self feed and we're all so proud of our baby!!!)

...followed by a dozen more older finches

Two other species we haven't had in at least the three years I've worked there - Lincoln's sparrow and White-crowned sparrow 🤨

(I mean we've had brewers and chipping sparrows and even a lark sparrow but ??)

A baby northern flicker, so young he looked just a little bit,, obscene lol (he had a horrible first day recovering from his injuries but now his feathers are growing in and he's perching on bark and we're also so proud 🥺)

Bunnies, bunnies, and more bunnies!! Good Lord they are such little dollops of velvet with lil pipe-cleaner sized paws, and you're telling me I get to hold them??? 🥺💕💕

Was literally about to close the gate behind me leaving one night, still in the driveway,, and my car headlights catch the eyes of a still-alive raccoon that had JUST been hit by a car moments earlier,,,

so I hit reverse, get out of the car, and heckin sprint back inside to fetch the only two people left in the building at 10pm - the actual Raccoons Staff - to help catch it

Finally typical baby birds that are not finches! But ofc it's starlings that eat like crap

And robins! And doves! ...with broken legs or subq emphysema (thanks outdoor cats)

Don't worry, we fixed the broken legs!

Still working on the sqe tho, slowly but surely

And bunnies with de-gloved hind-ends

(thanks outdoor cats)

Oh, some of the finches are being weird, like they've aspirated but their lungs are perfectly fine?? HAVE A PELICAN

A PELICAN WITH A GIGANTIC, EXPENSIVE, TRIPLE TRI-HOOKED FISHING LURE

LITERALLY HOOKING HER WHOLE FOOT TO HER THROAT POUCH. TEARING HOLES IN HER FOOT AND HER VERY IMPORTANT THROAT POUCH

Also she almost snapped two staff members who tested her patience teehee (she got fixed up n released! Yay!!)

Back to regularly scheduled bunny

I learned how to bottle feed two baby raccoons and one of them just wanted to snuggle into my elbow for safety 🥺💕🥺

Back to regularly scheduled finches. I mean starlings. I mean birds.

I said something in off-handed retail-tuned humor to a staff member i don't know super well to cope with understaffing stress and found out I'm viewed as senior staff with valuable love and expertise who is respected enough that my comment raised serious concern 😭🥺

Baby crow. This year's protocol to avoid habituation when feeding corvids is a camo suit with a picture of a crow face taped to the hat. With eye holes cut out.

Hate this so much I decided to sculpt a hand puppet crow head to try (like they used for the California condors). This is currently laying half finished on my desk

Those problem finches be problem-ing. Throwing everything we have at them and still haven't figured out how to fix them. Cue group problem solving in the Bird ICU Slack channel

Somewhere in all that were some fox kits and a separate adult whose shedding winter coat completely saved him from a fence wire amputating his tail

All these bunnies need antibiotics (thanks outdoor cats)

The softest, sweetest adult goldfinch 🥺

The most ferocious adult house sparrow, victimizing all my coworkers (not me tho, I'm immune to bird beak)

Both courtesy of window strikes

Two - count em, TWO common poorwills in one week!

A red-winged blackbird? In my rehab center??? Since when does anyone find injured rwb's?

TIL a lot of flickers n such end up caught in expanding foam sealant. Like. Come on guys. If you're putting that stuff anywhere. Sit watch until it's dry.

Come on, it's not that hard. Avoid having to carve out the screaming animal you were trying to evict

Anyways my dad/other boss is a contractor so I shot him a text and helped our vet & intake staff learn how to save more such lives in the future! The Flicker in question was able to keep almost all of his flight feathers intact (yay, less regrowth time!), regain his legs n feet, and eagerly scarf down all the mealworms we can give him

Btw a good solvent for expanding foam? High content rubbing alcohol

Anyways

Baby beavers look fake

They're so gosh darn adorable but like. You're telling me that hand-puppet that just squeaked at me for cuddles is a living baby? Too good to be true, but it is 🥺

Got stopped by a stranger at the public library to be asked about the baby beaver. I will never know if it was purely because I was wearing a logo shirt or bc the person saw me as staff on our last social media post n recognized me in public 😵‍💫😎

[perfectly-intoxicated]

tw: mentions of child endangerment

'Woman Sentenced to Serve 15 Years in Federal Prison for Child Endangerment/Negligent.'

Hannah stares at the paper. The words stare back at her, taunting. Who even reads papers anymore?

Her, apparently.

When her hands start shaking again, she tosses the newsletter aside onto the pristine green grass and rotates her wrists in slow circular motions. Her stress ball is inside, but she really doesn't want to go in. The elderly couple fostering her were sweet. They made her snickerdoodle cookies last night and taught her how to play Parcheesi.

They were too nice in a way that made her uncomfortable.

A woman had passed by the house today, and she hadn't needed to step through the entrance to see her seated with Anne and Benny (the fairytale, elderly couple) through the glass of the door. She should be happy at the possibility of leaving, of having a new place to stay. But at this point, the idea of staying at anyone's house makes her feel sick to her stomach.

Sleeping in the woods under a pile of rocks as blankets sounded better. Like a poorwill bird.

So now here she is, sitting on the steps of a porch that wasn't hers, in a house that wasn't hers, with people she didn't want to get to know better.

The front door opens and closes behind her, and the sound of heels clicking against the wood confirms it was definitely not Anne. Anne would've fallen the second she got a pair of heels on and broken her back from her lack of balance and grace. Respectfully.

Seconds pass. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. When it passes that time range, she turns back to look at the woman staring her down as if she were an ancient artifact who needed to be studied, and raises her eyebrows in a way that silently asks her to talk already.

"What?"

"You're not what I expected."

Her voice is deep and smooth, with the hints of an accent lingering behind every word. Colombian, maybe. Her tone reminds her of the satin sheets they used inside the house for each of the beds, but not intolerable. Sort of... comforting.

Sort of. Not entirely.

"Well, sorry to disappoint." Hannah disregards her with a sarcastic frown, and turns her head back to face away from the woman and ahead of her instead. She feels the presence step closer until she's seated right next to her, and she wants to rip her hair out from not being able to have a single moment to herself.

"Cuando mencioné disappointment?" While she couldn't say or understand a single fucking word of Spanish, her tone makes it easier to decipher what she means, and Hannah turns back to give her an incredulous look.

If she wasn't so over her already, she could appreciate how beautiful she is. Pitch black hair that cascades down her back in light beach waves, with even the hints of frizz around each curl not getting any attention from how her face is painted and pampered with the kind of make-up douchey men would look at and say was 'natural'. She made the embroidered print of her white blouse and her deep blue jeans look classy, when it would most definitely look cheap on anyone else.

It would be easier to insult her if her personality wasn't so patient and her appearance was terrible.

"What did you mean then?" Hannah asks, forearms resting over her knees and fingers picking at the dry skin of her thumbs, pushing back her cuticle only to try and pick it off.

The woman folds her hands in front of her and mirror her motions, head tilted as she thinks. "I've seen what you've been through. I've done my research. Having to raise a parent because of their poor decision-making, growing up in a world where you can't trust anyone. I know what that is like, y es una mierda."

"But you're strong. Resilient." She continues, the corners of her lips raising, and there's a glimpse of something in her eyes that Hannah hasn't seen in a while. Respect. "You have every right to let the world crush you and die right where you sit. It was what everyone expected of you. Yet here you are, looking at me like I'm ridiculous and you'd rather be anywhere else."

"You sound ridiculous. And I would rather be anywhere else."

The woman finally lets herself smile fully, as if her words weren't even the slightest bit rude. "If that's the case, I have the perfect 'anywhere else' location. If you'll be able to 'tolerate me', that is."

Hannah's eyes flit over her face and study her demeanor, looking for signs of deception or ulterior motive. Her body is relaxed, far calmer and confident in her own skin than she was in her own, like any choice she made wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things and she was only giving her a choice in the matter because she seemed interesting enough.

She could give two shits over how she used to live. No sympathy, no empathetic glances at the scars of her hands, and that's exactly what she wanted.

"So I guess I just go off with a stranger that easily, huh?"

"Something tells me you're desperate to leave this house." Fuck, and she really was. It got under her skin, how she could read her so easily and Hannah couldn't tell if the amusement she's displaying was real or not. Shifting where she sits, she huffs out a breath and slips her hands into the pocket of her sweatshirt, the both of them flexing open and then into a fist once they're out of sight.

"Maybe if you tell me your name, I'll consider it." Even though she already had her answer.

The woman holds out her hand in greeting the same way one would when meeting the governor or some shit and not some moody sixteen-year-old. "Monica. A pleasure."

[awesome-animals-for-reference]

Nightjars

They're a nocturnal bird family or something. Birbas!!

Great-Eared Night-Jar

Look at him go! He looks like a little dragon guy omg. That tiny ass beak does not look like its mouth.

This birba's face is so flat and like "u wot"

And it scream. Look at it go!!

It's so fucking cute. omg.

Standard-Winged Nightjar

Excuse me sir, what are those?

This man looks like a cat toy ngl.

Like, I feel flexed on.

Look at it go. It's popping off.

Least Nighthawk

omg baby. look at it. it baby!!

And there's baby in camo mode.

Yes baby, pop off.

Also, those wings look slick af. Quality baby popping off committing crimes. Birba!!

Rufous-bellied nighthawk

That birb is such a birba. It's so cute squished up like that. Almost looks like it's wearing a little outfit or something.

And there is birba popping off in camo. Very birba. Fucking adorable.

Sickle-Winged Nightjar

That name ain't lying, that is very sickle wing.

I have no idea why its wings are like that. Wikipedia said it eats bugs and likes to glide near the ground.

Pennant-Winged Nightjar

Omg, that bird is majestic. Like, those long extra feathers are awesome.

Look at it go! That's such a striking silhouette, it looks almost like a fusion between a butterfly and a jet plane.

That guy's fucking awesome, gonna be completely honest.

Scissor-Tailed Nightjar

Omg, that this's also majestic.

Like, look at this handsome guy with that handsome ass tail. That's so pretty and awesome, holy shit.

This guy could totally pass for a dragon or some shit in fight. The silhouette is just really good and striking. Like, pop off little man.

Eared Poorwill

omg look at him!! he has whiskers!

Little man has whisker-ass-looking things. Kinda looks like a mouse or something. Baby!

Sulawesi Nightjar

I love this guy's face. That is an awesome face ngl.

Donaldson Smith's nightjar

This guy also looks like a little dragon man.

Those spiky things on the beak look cool. I have no idea whether they're just for show or are actually sharp.

I love this picture. She prowling. The wing colors and patterns are also really cool.

Star-Spotted Nightjar

She crusty.

Normally not a big fan of spots, but this one just works.

Bonaparte's nightjar

This bird kinda looks like my dog. Automatic 10/10.

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Common Poorwill

Photo: Tom Benson

"In dry hills of the west, a soft whistled poor-will carries across the slopes on moonlit nights. Drivers may spot the Poorwill itself sitting on a dirt road, its eyes reflecting orange in the headlights, before it flits off into the darkness. This species is famous as the first known hibernating bird: In cool weather it may enter a torpid state, with lowered body temperature, heartbeat, and rate of breathing, for days or even weeks at a time. Science discovered this in the 1940s, but apparently the Hopi people knew it long before that: their name for the Poorwill means 'the sleeping one.'"

- Audubon Field Guide

[herpsandbirds]

Common Poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii), family Caprimulgidae, Fresno, CA, USA

photograph by Hailey Stalter

[alonglistofbirds]

[2390/11080] Chocó poorwill - Nyctiphrynus rosenbergi

Order: Caprimulgiformes (nightjars) Family: Caprimulgidae Subfamily: Caprimulginae (typical nightjars)

Photo credit: Dušan Brinkhuizen via Macaulay Library

[zoologica42]

When I say "im eepy" you must understand that this is me.

[fillielitsa]

Jody Poorwill