Birds of Costa Rica - Chordeiles


Lesser Nighthawk (Chordeiles acutipennis) Porto Seguro, Brazil
Photograph by Bradley Hacker © All Rights Reserved.


Lesser Nighthawk (Chordeiles acutipennis) Male Salamanca National Park, Colombia Note white band on wing of male.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Lesser Nighthawk (Chordeiles acutipennis acutipennis) Female Salamanca National Park, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

A migratory species but with a shorter path than the similar but slightly larger Common Nighthawk. White patch below wing usually visible. Thin white band on wing seen during flight is closer to tip of wing than on Common Nighthawk. Male has a white partial collar around neck in front.


Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, Florida, United States Note wings extend about as far as tail.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, California,
Photograph by Julio Mulero Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Northern migrant. Compare to Lesser Nighthawk. White band on wing seen during flight is thinner than on Common Pauraque, and further from tip than on Lesser Nighthawk. Note white throat on male is often hidden. Often active in the day, and often hunts from the air like a swallow.
Possible female (no white throat).