whippoorwills
Night-calling forest birds
Whippoorwills are nocturnal North American birds named for their distinctive three-note call, which sounds like "whip-poor-will" repeated insistently through summer nights.
The birds themselves are seldom seen—mottled brown, they roost on the ground or along branches during daylight.
Their call evokes rural American nights and appears frequently in poetry and folk music: We fell asleep to the whippoorwills outside the cabin window.
Nocturnal insectivorous bird
- nocturnalActive during darkness
- goatsuckerNocturnal insect-catching bird
- insectivoreOrganism eating bugs primarily
- camouflageConcealment through visual blending
ground-nesting · migratory · wingspan · mottled · fledgling · breeding · clutch · habitat
19th-century American naturalist-essayist
- WaldenMassachusetts pond and memoir
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- pastoralOf countryside or clergy care
- AmericanaHeritage artifacts or music
Romanticism · Frost · Southern Gothic · Faulkner · nostalgia · rustic · bucolic · symbolism
nightjar
Nocturnal insectivorous bird
- nocturnalActive during darkness
- goatsuckerNocturnal insect-catching bird
- insectivoreOrganism eating bugs primarily
camouflage · ground-nesting · migratory · wingspan · mottled · fledgling · breeding · clutch · habitat · deciduous
Thoreau
19th-century American naturalist-essayist
- WaldenMassachusetts pond and memoir
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- pastoralOf countryside or clergy care
Americana · Romanticism · Frost · Southern Gothic · Faulkner · nostalgia · rustic · bucolic · symbolism · imagery
omen
Prophetic indicator
Appalachian · soul · departed · spirit · prophecy · ill luck · legend · belief · warning · supernatural
song
Musical piece with words
- cryVocal expression of emotion
- repetitionAct of redoing
- duskDimming after sundown
twilight · evensong · haunting · melodic · whistling · echoing · chorus · nocturne · serenade · trilling
- rural SouthBaptist church, dirt roads, gravel roads, backroads, country roads
whippoorwillsmockingbirds
Birds that imitate sounds
nightingales · thrushes · canaries · skylarks