Evening Walk Yields Unexpected Opportunistic Birding Event

On our late-evening walk at the local park, as dusk was turning into night, we saw a bird that clearly revealed itself to be a nightjar as it took off from the dead snag it was sitting on and flew around eating bugs in its characteristic way that is very hard to describe, but that Robert just called "flying around like a paper airplane almost" and "erratic and moth-like." It was not immediately obvious which nightjar, though it was very large, but I was very excited because I knew that it was a life bird, if only we could determine which one.

We power-walked the rest of the way around the trail in the increasing darkness and just as we got to the end, we heard a bird calling. Although I had never heard it in life before, it was immediately obvious what it was, and Robert and I grabbed onto each other by the arms with the shared happiness of knowing for certain that we had a chuck-will's-widow. A perusal of four different field guides confirmed that the bird we saw was also a chuck-will's-widow, due to its size and brown coloration.



I have needed a sighting like this for a long time - seeing a new bird totally unexpectedly and in a familiar local place - to get me jazzed up about birding again. It is precisely this kind of experience that makes birding so cool, how something amazing can happen to you totally accidentally. (It certainly helps compensate for those times when you miss a rare bird by 5 minutes, and yes I am talking about you, elegant trogon!) And my mom got a lifer (female) painted bunting in her yard this week, so it's been a good time for awesome and easy new bird sightings.

Life Bird Update, ABA Region:
#446, Chuck-will's-widow, Austin, TX