Eastern Whip-poor-will

How to find it

Listening at night is the best method, because Eastern Whip-poor-wills are usually heard but hard to see. By day nightjars rest on leaf litter, where they are very hard to spot, or on a branch. Birds are most active after sunset and near first light. Around full moon they may feed all night, so bright moon periods are the best time to look. A calling bird may stay put while you watch. Keep expectations modest, since records here are few.

How to recognise it

This is a small nightjar, about 23 cm long. In Costa Rica it looks greyer and more streaked above than the other nightjars found here.

Across its range the plumage is mottled grey, brown and black, with a large head, large eyes and a tiny bill. In flight the wings and tail look rounded.

The tail separates the sexes. The adult male has broad white tips on the three outer tail feathers, while the female's tail tips are buff instead.

The female photographed at Monteverde in 2018 was told by its pale greyish look, a dark stripe down the centre of the crown and no white in the wing. Buff, blunt tail tips showed it was a female.

What it sounds like

Recording: Jake McCumber, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

In Costa Rica it is described as solitary and alert, and it often sings loudly even when an observer is in sight. By day it rests motionless on the ground or on branches, camouflaged against leaf litter or bark.

At night it feeds on flying insects such as moths and beetles. The Monteverde female stayed still when approached and made no sound. Each time the observer came within about 1 m, it lunged its head forward with its pink mouth wide open, a display the authors compared to a snake strike.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is reported from sea level up to about 1200 m, including the Central Valley. It lives inside humid and very humid tropical forest. One source calls it a casual to very rare winter resident along the whole Pacific slope, from sea level to about 1,220 m.

Museum specimens from Costa Rica and Panama all come from middle elevations, mostly on the Pacific slope. Tracking work from southern Texas to southern Costa Rica found that wintering birds mostly use closed-canopy forest.

When to see it

It is a winter visitor, present from mid-November to late March. Dated specimens and sight records from Costa Rica and Panama fall between 6 December and 13 March.

Similar birds

Chuck-will's-widow is a more regular Costa Rican winter migrant that looks similar and sounds alike. Its call is lower and slower, which helps separate the two. Eastern and Mexican Whip-poor-wills are easy to tell apart in general, the Mexican bird giving a lower, rougher, rolling trill, but no known features separate the females of the two species.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican Spanish names include Chotacabras Norteño (the AOCR name), Chotacabras Ruidoso and Chotacabras Gritón. Some say Costa Ricans call it cuyeo, a name that imitates its song, though that claim lacks a citation and should be treated with caution.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rica list marks it as a migrant with a question mark, so its status here is uncertain, and IUCN lists it as Near Threatened.

Photography tips

The Monteverde bird was an apparently exhausted nightjar making short flights around a garden at night. By day it stayed in place and let the observer come within about 1 m without flying away. Range-wide, birds are most active after sunset and near first light, and bright moon periods are the best time to look.