The chuck-will's-widow (''Antrostomus carolinensis'') is a nocturnal

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

of the

nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called bugeaters, their primary source of food ...

family Caprimulgidae. It is mostly found in the

southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

(with disjunct populations in

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

;

Ontario, Canada Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

; and

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

) near swamps, rocky uplands, and pine woods. It migrates to the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, and northwestern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Taxonomy

The chuck-will's-widow was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist. Education Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp F ...

in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

''. He placed it with all the other nightjars in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Caprimulgus'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Caprimulgus carolinensis''. Gmelin based his description on those of earlier authors including the "Goat-sucker of Carolina" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist

Mark Catesby Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English natural history, naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747, Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama ...

in his ''The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands '' that was published between 1729 and 1732. Chuck-will's-widow is now placed with 11 other species in the genus ''

Antrostomus ''Antrostomus'' is a genus of nightjars formerly included in the genus ''Caprimulgus''. They are medium-sized nocturnal birds with long pointed wings, short legs and short bills. ''Antrostomus'' nightjars are found in the New World, and like ot ...

'' that was erected by the French naturalist Charles Bonaparte in 1838. The generic name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''antron'' meaning "cavern" and ''stoma'' meaning "mouth". The specific epithet ''carolinensis'' is from the toponym Carolina. The type locality is

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

: no

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised. The common English name "chuck-will's-widow " is an onomatopoeia from the bird's song. Alternative names include "chuckwuts-widow" and "chip-fell-out-of-a-oak". This bird is sometimes confused with the better-known whippoorwill (''Antrostomus vociferus''), because of their similar calls and unusual names. Though rather closely related, they are two distinct

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

Description

The chuck-will's-widow has a short bill and a long tail typical of the nightjars. It has mottled brownish underparts, a buff throat, reddish-brown feathers lined with black, and brown and white patterning on head and chest. Males have patches of white on their outer tail feathers. It is the largest nightjar in North America. In length, it ranges from . The wingspan can range from . The body mass of the species is from . Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the tail is , the bill is and the tarsus is . The repetitive song is often heard at night. It consists of a series of calls with a vibrating middle note between two shorter notes, not much shifting in pitch. It is slower, lower-pitched and less piercing than the song of the whip-poor-will. The chuck-will's-widow's other calls can include a dog-like barking sound, a low pitched call with two alternating syllables, and a riveting "grunt-cluck" or "curr" sound where the chuck-will's-widow repeatedly makes a grunting sound with a simultaneous clicking noise at the same time. The clicking can be heard from long distances, and the "grunt-cluck" is sung by other

species as well.

Behavior and ecology

Diet

It eats primarily

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s, particularly those active at night such as

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s, and winged

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s. It will also eat small birds and

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s, swallowing them whole.

Breeding

The eggs are laid on patches of dead leaves on the ground. They are pink with spots of brown and lavender and are incubated by the female.

Gallery

File:Chuck-will's-widow eggs RWD.jpg, Eggs on leaves File:Chuck-will's-widow RWD6.jpg, Camouflaged female on nest File:Chuck-will's-widow RWD5.jpg, Mimicking a Cottonmouth snake File:Chuck-will's-widow RWD2.jpg, Perched on a branch File:Chuck-will's-widow RWD3.jpg, Perched on a branch File:Caprimulgus carolinensisDF28N01B.jpg, Adult male (upper right) and female (lower left) File: Chuck-will’s-widow_Tex.jpg, South Padre Island - Texas

References

Sources

External links

audubon.org

– USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

– Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Chuck-will's-widow Bird Sound
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1262147 Antrostomus Nightjars Birds of the United States Meso-American wintering birds Birds described in 1789 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin