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Common Nighthawks at the Ballgame
Stadium lights attract birds that hunt insects on the wing
© Tom Benson
An evening baseball game isn’t the only thing illuminated by the bright stadium lights. High in the air, countless flying insects are drawn to them. And those insects are a perfect snack for the game’s avian attendees! Common Nighthawks swoop with their wide mouths open to hoover up the flying insects under the lights, performing aerial stunts over the athletes on the ground.
BirdNote®
Common Nighthawks at the Ballgame
Written by Conor Gearin
[Baseball stadium organ, crowd cheering]
This is BirdNote.
[Crack of a baseball bat and crowd cheering]
An evening baseball game isn’t the only thing illuminated by the bright stadium lights. High in the air, countless flying insects are drawn to them. And those insects are a perfect snack for the game’s avian attendees!
[Common Nighthawk call]
Common Nighthawks swoop with their wide mouths open to hoover up the flying insects under the lights, performing aerial stunts over the athletes on the ground.
[Common Nighthawk call]
Common Nighthawks belong to the nightjar family, a group of birds with long wings and big mouths that are adept at hunting in the air.
Nighthawks have gray and brown feathers that help them blend in on the ground. In the sky, though, these birds stand out. Vertical white wing stripes glow bright even at dusk and dawn, when they’re most active.
To show off for potential mates, male nighthawks use a display called booming.
[Common Nighthawk boom]
They dive so that air makes a loud boom as it passes over their wings.
[Common Nighthawk boom]
[Fenway crowd sounds]
[Fenway vendor: “Hot dogs! Heeeey, hot dogs!”]
The next time you're enjoying your snacks at the game, just know that the birds are enjoying theirs, too.
[Common Nighthawk call]
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
This episode is sponsored by seven-year-old Quinn Sedgley, who wants everyone to help birds and wildlife.
###
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Common Nighthawk ML516720 recorded by Wil Hershberger, and Common Nighthawk ML130729 recorded by Dave Herr.
Hot Dog Vendor played by Nick Fountain.
Baseball game recording by Alyssa Galindo, and Fenway Stadium recording by vflefevre on Freesound.org.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote June 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# CONI-03-2024-06-10 CONI-03
Michael Stein
Narrator
Conor Gearin
WriterSights & Sounds
