ML71140761

Age and sex

Unknown age, Male - X

Media notes

Male Common Poorwill photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 5 October 2017 at Mile Square Regional Park, Fountain Valley, Orange County, California.

Observation details

We flushed this bird while walking along a road along the western part of the nature center and over the next half-hour or so we flushed it several more times before I saw it land in the open under some trees, where it remained for the rest of our visit as we observed it at a distance. I once heard this bird give a soft “whip” call when it flew by, but it was generally silent when it took flight before dropping down to the ground in nearby vegetation. I never did see this bird on the ground before it took flight, so was fortunate to see it land in front of me. This was a small to medium-sized nightjar that when it took flight had rounded wings and a notably short tail that appeared to have rounded corners. When seen on the ground, this was a plump bird with a short bill that was slim and with a weakly hooked tip, a large head with a flat-crowned appearance, a short and stocky neck, a plump body that had a horizontal posture while standing on short but rather stout legs, and moderately long wings, the rounded tips of which reached right about to the tip of a tail that appeared to be almost as long as the body without the head. Typical of a nightjar, this bird had very complex plumage patterns that combined gray, brown, black, and a little white. The forehead and crown were a medium gray to brownish-gray color with intricate markings that created an uneven pattern. Contrasting with the paler and more grayish crown the facial region, including the lores, supraloral, superciliary, and auricular regions, were quite dark and probably best described as sooty. I noted a narrow orbital ring that was cinnamon but not much else pattern on the face. I further thought the dusky coloration extended down to the lower part of the face and across the throat, which was subtly demarcated below by a narrow and seemingly broken line of white that extended across the lower edge of the throat and along the side of the neck. Below this line the breast was coarsely mottled with blackish and grayish-brown, seemingly with entire feathers either= one color of the other, but I never clearly saw the belly, flanks or undertail coverts given the way this bird stood low to the ground and with the wings drooped. I noted no suggestion of a paler or rufous collar across the back of the neck, and I am not sure I ever clearly saw the mantle, but the scapulars had an odd pattern that combined a row of well-defined triangles of black with a grayish background, but I was unable to discern the parts of the feathers that were black or gray. The closed wings were primarily a medium, grayish-brown color with fine markings of black that resulted in an intricate pattern that was impossible to describe, but I did note along the lowermost row of coverts, presumably the greaters, a series of heart or spade-shaped spots that were paler and more buffy. The tertials were dark brown and intricately marked, but the exposed primary tips, one or two of which seemed to be misarranged, had a coarse pattern of barring that alternated a bright cinnamon color with dark brown, and with fine internal markings on the dark brown. The tips of these feathers were also dark brown with the cinnamon bands ended somewhat short of the tip. As seen when this bird was on the ground, the upperside of the tail appeared to be medium-gray with fine, dark markings, but I could just barely see a narrow band of white on the underside of closed tail on what I assume was the outermost pair or two of rectrices. I also noted a narrow white tip to the tail when I saw this bird was in flight. The bill was dark gray to blackish, the eyes were quite dark, yet I thought I could see brown tones, and the legs were medium-gray, but I never clearly saw the feet.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

800

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

1703 pixels x 1236 pixels

Original file size

4.22 MB