Chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) - 26May2015

Goat suckers, what's not to love.  They are masters of camouflage, they make all kinds of weird noises and can sing with the best of them, they are nocturnal and they suck goats.  Ok well maybe they don't suck goats, that is an unproven myth.  However, it is a better name than Nightjar which is even more lame.

Chucks are bigger than Whip-poor-wills and they are more common near the coast.  This particular bird was actually found by a non-birder that almost stepped on it while it incubated eggs.  They gave me general directions and it still took me the better part of two days to find it.  That is how well they are camouflaged.  It turns out the male and female split duty incubating and over the next week myself and a couple other people I brought down saw both the male and female.  If we got even remotely close, one of the birds would fly in and try and distract us.  We kept a respectful distance.