COLUMN: It's Just a Country State of Mind: Call of the whippoorwill

When I was young, I lived out in the country with my family. I can still recall the sound of a strange bird every evening after the sun started to set. It was a whippoorwill, though I didn't know it at the time. Later, my parents told me that I could remember its name by the sound it makes.

The whip-poor-will makes the same sound as its name. That's how you can distinguish its call from other bird calls. It might interest you to know that the hyphenated version of its name is the standard in ornithology and in formal bird guides. The one-word version is frequently accepted in dictionaries.

The bird has even been the inspiration for several quotes, homes and stories. The famous essayist Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "The note of the whippoorwill echoing across the fields is the voice that the moon and moonlight use to woo me."

A few years back, a friend of mine asked if I had heard any whippoorwills while out in the forest. I had to think about it. They come out at night to forage. Their favorite meals are moths and other insects, so naturally I wouldn't hear them unless I was out in the woods at night.

Whippoorwills are migrating birds and they go south for the winter. They come back to Indiana between March and April. I was on a mission to find the answer to this question. When it was time for them to return, I made a point to be out in different forests just to see if I could hear these elusive birds. In all my experiments, I never heard one. That does not mean that there weren't any, it just means that I didn't hear them.

So, I did a deeper dive in my studies. The whippoorwill has a distinct look. They are about 10 inches in height, and they are spotted with brown feathers, which makes them hard to see in a heavily wooded area. Their habitat is normally in the eastern and central United States. The female of the species lays two eggs among the leaves on the ground. You won't see these birds at a bird feeder. They are rather a reclusive lot. They like to be heard and not seen.

I can still remember as a child having my bedroom window open and listening to the sound of their calls in the night. When I was out camping in the Missouri Ozark, I heard them at night. In fact, every time I've camped there, I have heard them. It thrilled my heart to hear a sound from my childhood as I lay under the stars in my tent. It was a bit of nostalgia for me, remembering those early days when it was a nightly event to hear them in the Indiana forests back home.

When the sun rises, the whippoorwill becomes silent, blending into its surroundings by lying on a tree branch. The whippoorwill lies flat and parallel on the branch, camouflaged by its beautiful plumage. They spend their days resting on the tree limbs.

So finally, after returning from one of my camping trips to the Ozark, I researched some articles to find out why they weren't as prevalent in Indiana. What I found out was a little bit alarming. These birds are in significant decline in Indiana with their range having dropped roughly 60 to 70 percent over the past 50 years. They are considered a species of special concern in Indiana due to habitat loss, specifically due to the maturation of forests and the reduction of young, open-canopy forest habitats. Conservation efforts have been made, particularly by the Indiana Audubon Society, who are now focusing on their remaining breeding habitats. One such place is at Indiana Dunes.

This lightened my heart quite a bit to read this. There are others who are working on their conservation as well. So, to answer my friend's question, I have to say no, I haven't heard any whippoorwills lately, at least not in Indiana. But I am hopeful that I will hear them again one day.

Have you heard any whippoorwills lately?

Happy spring!

— Susan