| @atakdog: Sorry, I guess I was being too North American-centric! Colloquial usage in North America must be Goatsucker as opposed to Nightjar for the family Caprimuldidae. Only six species are present here, four Poor-wills and the two nighthawks. Of those, only the Common Nighthawk is present throughout the continent (excluding Arctic regions), while all the other species are regional. Thus, this midwesterners automatic response of "Nighthawk", the only aberrant goatsucker that comes out in the daylight and is frequently seen. I almost stepped on one last summer that was sleeping on the driveway! All six NA species have white throats, so whatever that "N" bird is, it's not North American in origin. An older edition of the North American Field Guide doesn't even have Nightjar in parenthesis as an alternative name and, as I'm "older", that's probably why I've never even heard the name applied. As they say, Americans and British (sub Australian, New Zealanders, etc)--two peoples separated by a common language! |
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