Eastern Whip-poor-will Sounds

Overview
ID info
Life History
Maps
Sounds

Song
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New York, June 06, 2020Recorded by Jay McGowan / Macaulay Library
Song
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New York, May 26, 2012Recorded by Matthew D. Medler / Macaulay Library
Song
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West Virginia, May 23, 2020Recorded by Wil Hershberger / Macaulay Library
Calls
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New Jersey, May 31, 2018Recorded by Tom Johnson / Macaulay Library

Sounds provided by Macaulay Library.
Listen to more sounds of this species from the ML archive.

Songs

Although Eastern Whip-poor-wills are not technically songbirds, their whip-poor-will call functions as a song, since males consistently repeat this call from conspicuous perches during the breeding season.

Calls

The male’s emphatic, chanted whip-poor-will, sometimes repeated for hours on end, is a classic sound of warm summer nights in the countryside of the East. It commonly appears in regional songs and literature. A typical call accents the first and last syllable (with a tremulous middle syllable), and immediately starts in on the next call, creating a circular rhythm. Males and females both give a short, sharp quirt to contact their mates or express agitation when a predator is near the nest. They also make growls to ward off territorial intruders and hisses to ward off predators.