LESSER NIGHTHAWK found at the Cape May Point State Park- 11/25/07

Earlier this morning a nighthawk was found at the Cape may Point State Park. While the bird was first thought to be a Common nighthawk, it turns out that this is actually a LESSER NIGHTHAWK. Thanks to Steve Bauer for this find.


Look closely and you can see a bit of the buffy spotting on the primaries. Also note that the white patch in the wing is positioned past the tertials where this patch would be positioned underneath the tertials in a Common nighthawk. One way to separate from and Antillean nighthawk is the lack of contrastingly pale tertials. Also look for the primaries to be close to equal to the length to the tail. Not particularly noticeable in the photo above. From a different angle this was a bit more obvious.


Note (looking at the wingtip just above the broken branch, the lower wig tip in the photo) that primary #10 is actually shorter than primary #9. This as I understand is pretty diagnostic for a Lesser nighthawk.


Just a pretty close-up photo for your viewing pleasure.