Last updated on May 30th, 2022 at 06:42 pm
Whether you’re birding at night or just noticing the sounds outside your window at dusk, chances are you’ve heard these common birds sing if you live in Virginia.
Here are 7 common Virginia birds that sing at night:
1. Black-crowned Night-Heron
The Black-crowned Night-Heron is a migrating nocturnal bird that makes its home in Virginia year-round, living mostly along the coast but traveling inland during the breeding season.
They also live in most of South and Central America year-round and in most of the United States during the breeding season.
Black-crowned Night-Herons live across the Americas, Africa, and Eurasia, making their home in wetland areas.
They live together with other birds in colonies to breed but forage alone.
You can recognize a Black-crowned Night Heron by its loud “Kwok!” noise heard at night.
Male Black-crowned Night-Herons will also make a “plup” sound similar to a hiss to attract a female.
Parents make guttural notes and a “woc-a-woc” call when approaching a nest with food.
2. Chuck-will’s-widow
The Chuck-will’s-widow is a nightjar, a type of brown nocturnal bird native to the Americas.
Specifically, the Chuck-will’s-widow can be found in the southern United States, including Virginia, during the breeding season.
However, they live in Central and South America for the rest of the year.
While the Chuck-will’s-widow is the largest nightjar in North America, it can be difficult to spot due to how well their brown plumage blends in with the forests where they live.
Typically, you can find them in pine, oak, and hickory forests in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic United States.
These birds are active at night and fly low over the ground at dusk to find insects, bats, and small birds to eat.
Their most common prey are beetles, moths, and dragonflies. Only occasionally do they eat birds, and when they do, they are typically small birds like Cape May Warblers and Carolina Wrens.
You can recognize Chuck-will’s-widows by their sound, a call that starts with a “chuck” followed by a “Chuck-will’s-widow” sound. They are very vocal.
3. Common Nighthawk
Like the Chuck-will’s-widow, the Common Nighthawk is a nightjar.
They live in the open country, including forest clearings, prairies, farmland, and suburban areas.
Although they have been declining in North America in recent years, they remain common nighttime guests in Virginia, especially during the breeding season.
Two of the easiest ways to identify a Common Nighthawk are by sound and by flight pattern.
A Common Nighthawk’s call sounds nasal, sounding something like a repeating “peent.”
Its flight pattern is erratic, and its displays often highlight the angular shape of its wings. Additionally, these birds make a loud booming noise with their wings when they dive.
Common Nighthawks feed mostly on insects, including beetles, grasshoppers, moths, termites, and ants.
They mainly forage at dusk and dawn, although they have been seen foraging during the day and the middle of the night from time to time, especially when there’s plenty of light.
You’ll often find Common Nighthawks near light sources at night, taking advantage of the many insects that swarm around lights.
4. Barn Owl
Barn Owls make several sounds at night, including barks, hisses, and clicks. They’re small, weighing just about a pound, and can be recognized by their heart-shaped faces.
Typically, Barn Owls hunt at night over open fields, catching mice and other small prey using their excellent eyesight and auditory location system.
They have a uniquely great ability to detect the location of prey by sound alone.
You can also find Barn Owls nesting in tree cavities along river banks, as well as in artificial structures like barns, bridges, tunnels, and church steeples.
They are considered at risk due to declining populations in Virginia but are still common in Orange and Culpeper counties.
5. Barred Owl
The Barred Owl has perhaps the most recognizable call of all, with a distinctive “who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all” call.
Additionally, they’ll make gurgling noises, cackles, caws, and hoots during mating season.
Barred Owls are named for their plumage, which looks like bars of white and brown.
They have deep black eyes and a small, rounded yellow beak, and they weigh just a pound or so.
Barred Owls typically roost during the day and hunt at night, living in old forests but also making the most of disturbed areas.
When they hunt, they move with stealth and often make little to no noise.
6. Eastern Screech-Owl
Eastern Screech-Owls can be difficult to spot but are easier to hear.
They sing numerous songs at night, from a whining noise targeted at intruders to a cooing tremolo call to communicate between pairs and families.
They’ll also hoot, bark, or screech, depending on the circumstances.
The female Eastern Screech-Owl typically broods the eggs and young, leaving foraging for the males.
Males collect the following to bring back to the nest until the young are fully grown:
- Earthworms
- Insects
- Reptiles
- Small birds
- Small mammals
If you want to locate an Eastern Screech-Owl, look for regurgitated pellets near trees.
Eastern Screech-Owls will regurgitate indigestible materials like fur and bone into pellets near their nesting sites, which can give you clues as to where to look for them.
Eastern Screech-Owls live in woodlands, meadows, fields, and marshes, and they’ve made their home in many suburban areas and parks as well.
7. Eastern Whip-poor-will
The Eastern Whip-poor-will’s call sounds like “whip-poor-will,” hence its name.
Its call is so well-known that it was mentioned in works by H.P. Lovecraft, Hank Williams, Robert Frost, Washington Irving, and more.
The Eastern Whip-poor-will’s call has become synonymous with a summer night in the forest.
They sleep on the forest floor by day, blending in with the leaf litter, then hunt for insects and other prey at night.
They live in both deciduous and mixed forests in the Eastern United States and Southern Canada.
The Eastern Whip-poor-will can call for hours on end during the breeding season, sometimes reaching more than 1,000 calls in a row without a break.