Eastern Whip-poor-will Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Turn your sound on! The evening song of the Eastern whip-poor-will is a late spring/early summer sound. The male birds repeat this whip-poor-will call repeatedly—sometimes for hours—during breeding season, which is happening now. This bird will also sometimes clap its wings, growl, and hiss to ward off predators and those that intrude on its territory! These birds are most active at dusk and at night, and their mottled gray, black, and brown coloring makes them extremely difficult to detect in t