Nests & Eggs: Whippoorwill

Plate 23: Whippoorwill

Antrostomus vociferus

Very useful ‘animated insect trap’ with a monotonous and recognizable call.

The Whip-poor-will is never seen flying high in the sky, and the absence of white spots in the wings always distinguishes it from the Nighthawk. To find the Whip-poor-will one must go to the deep woods where, in a quiet tangle of ferns and bushes, a dark brown, silent-winged creature may fly from the leaves, to flutter a few rods farther on, and drop again to the ground. The well-known song which is given with such constancy and fervor on spring and summer nights may be written chuck, whip-poor-wee-ah, chuck, whip-poor-wee-ah. Sometimes the song is repeated two hundred times or more without cessation.
An Introduction to the Birds of Pennsylvania

Suggestions

Print out the notebooking pages provided below.
Read the Whip-poor-will story in Bird Biographies out loud.
Have a younger student orally narrate what was read. He can then copy a few lines of his narration onto the notebooking pages.
Older students can read the text, Plate XXIII: Whippoorwill, and provide a written narration.
Sketch the bird. This encourages attention to detail, which will aid in identifying the bird later on. Another option is to use the printables provided below.
Sketch the nest of the bird, along with the eggs. Note where the nest is usually found.
Older students can include the taxonomy.
Learn more about the Whip-poor-will at Cornell.
On one notebooking page note the facts:
- Description.
- Habitat.
- Range.
- Food.
- Nest.
- Eggs.
- Call.
The Whippoorwill is covered in The Burgess Bird Book: CHAPTER XXIII. Some Big Mouths.