Common poorwill

SCIENTIFIC NAME Phalaenoptilus nuttallii

REGION

Shrubby grasslands and open woodlands in the southern Okanagan Valley, B.C., and in the Cypress Hills in southwest Saskatchewan

CONSERVATION STATUS

Least concern

WHY SO SPECIAL

The only bird known to hibernate

COOL FACTS

The common poorwill is a nocturnal member of the nightjar family, which in Canada also includes the common nighthawk and whip-poor-will. It hunts at night and relies on a large gape surrounded by sensory bristles to help it capture moths and other flying insects on the wing. When the migratory poorwill is in Canada between April and September, it can periodically slip into a deep torpor, where its body temperature drops from a normal 40 C to a mere 5 C and may remain “chilled out” for up to 36 hours. Doing so saves the bird valuable energy when temperatures are cool or insect prey are scarce. It’s on the birds’ wintering grounds in the southwest United States that their use of torpor is most profound. There, they may slip into a long-term torpor lasting weeks and sometimes months at a stretch, enjoying the same energy savings as does a hibernating chipmunk or woodchuck. The poorwill’s unusual behaviour prompted the Hopi people of Arizona to call it “the sleeping one.”