Twilight Voices

     Late in July of 2019, we visited relatives in the wooded mountains of South Carolina for a couple of days.  And while there, we heard a whip-poor-will chanting its name from the deep woods at dusk, and a barred owl calling from that same forest the next afternoon.  It was thrilling to hear both those birds in that forested wilderness.
     As daytime bird songs fade away during summer twilights in the woods of the eastern United States, the voices of nocturnal birds can be heard, including the hooting of great horned owls and barred owls and the chanting of whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will's-widows.  All these birds nest in woods and are most active at dusk and through each night.  And they all call at dusk and into the night, giving away their wild presence, even when they are not seen. 
     Many people like to hear these birds calling at night.  Some lie in bed at night and are thrilled to hear these unseen birds that represent the mysterious nighttime woods.  I always feel privileged to hear any one of these birds calling in the night woods.
     Listening to the rthym of each species' calling identifies it.  Great horned owls' hooting generally consists of three short, quick hoots, closely followed by two long ones.  The birds of each pair of horned owls most often hoot to each other at dawn and dusk during winter, which is their time of courting.  But they also hoot anytime of the day, and year.
     Barred owls are called "eight-hooters" because their classic hooting anytime of day and year is of four hoots, a brief pause, then another four hoots.  But barred owls also utter screeches, moans and other spine-chilling calls throughout the year as well. 
     The closely related whip-poor-wills and Chuck-Will's-widows monotonously chant their names over and over and over from the woods at night.  There is a slight distinction of beat that identifies these two kinds of nightjars from each other.  I think they and their other relatives are called nightjars because they jar the night with their loud, seemingly unending, chanting.     
     Great horned owls and barred owls are permanent residents, each individual living in a woods all its life, including raising young there.  But the nightjars only come to eastern North America woods in summer to raise two chicks per pair.  In autumn, the whips migrate south to Central America where flying insects, their food, is available the year around.  And the chucks winter in Central America, the West Indies and northern South America, again where flying insects are abundant the year around.
     All these beautiful species of woodland night birds have brownish and mottled plumage that camouflages them in forests.  They are invisible until they fly.  Their blending into their shared environment protects them when perched during the day and brooding eggs and small young, the owls in the trees and the nightjars on dead-leaf forest floors.
     At night, the predatory owls catch and consume small creatures, including mice and rats, small birds, snakes, frogs and other critters.  They grab those animals in their sharp talons.  Meanwhile, nightjars use their gaping mouths to snare moths, beetles and other, larger insects in mid-air.  Obviously, each of these groups of woodlland birds have their own niche and don't compete for food, or nesting sites in their shared environment.
     The owls nest in trees early in spring, the great horns on abandoned, stick cradles made by crows or hawks in upland woods, and the barred in larger tree cavities in wooded bottomlands.  Females of each kind of owl usually lay two white eggs per clutch. 
     Female whips and chucks each lay two eggs on dead leaves on the forest floor of upland woods in May.  Brooding nightjars and their eggs and young are well camouflaged on those dead leaves.
     All these birds of the woods are enjoyable to hear during spring and summer twilights and nights.  They offer a touch of exciting woodland wilderness.