The Mysterious Folklore of the Whippoorwill
Does the whippoorwill drink goat’s milk? Does it foretell death, marriage, or woe? Can your aching back be cured by its call? Few birds have spun such a crazed web of mythology and myth-information. At the heart of this confusion and misdirection is a medium-size bird called the whippoorwill.
The Whippoorwill’s Woe
The merit or blame for this bird’s name belongs to Aristotle. The wise philosopher took a frivolous side trip into illogic to report a ridiculous story about the whippoorwill: “Flying to the udders of she-goats, it sucks them and so it gets its name,” he reported.
It was probably the whippoorwills (or their crepuscular cousin, the nighthawks) that were snagging insects as the insects congregated around the thin-haired bellies of goats. But Aristotle’s authoritative nonsense stuck with the Caprimulgidae family (the Latin word comes from capri for “goat” and mulgere “to milk”), and one common name for the bird family is the inelegant “goatsucker.”
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About the Whippoorwill
In North America, whippoorwills range from eastern Texas to southern Canada and east to the Atlantic. The night is theirs, although in both daylight and dark the birds depend on their superb camouflage to see them through.
Whippoorwills do their courting after sunset. The male’s spring ritual is an elaborate one, involving strutting, throat-puffing, and a variety of noises designed to convince the silent female that he is the best mate among a forest swarming with calling males. It’s almost impossible for a spring woods traveler to escape the questionable music of one of the family to which the whippoorwill belongs. If you venture into a forest in the weeks ahead, keep an ear cocked for the whippoorwill’s call and be prepared to make a wish, do a somersault, or see the Moon in a frog pond.
► Listen to the haunting call of a whippoorwill, courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
It could mean many things, according to the wealth of myth surrounding this night flyer.
The note of the whippoorwill borne over the fields is the voice with which the woods and moonlight woo me.
–Henry David Thoreau (1817–62), American Writer
Whippoorwill Folklore
Old wives worked overtime to whipstitch the tattered fabric of whippoorwill folklore. Here are some examples…
- When a single woman heard her first whippoorwill in springtime, she must have felt her heart lurch in panic, for if the bird did not call again, she would remain single for a year. If the birdsong continued, she was fated to remain single unless she had been quick-thinking and made a wish upon hearing the first call. If she kept that wish secret, she ultimately would be married.
- Whippoorwills singing near a house were an omen of death, or at least of bad luck.
- A man could rid himself of an aching back if he turned somersaults in time to whippoorwill calls.
- If an Omaha tribe Native American heard a whippoorwill’s called invitation, he or she was advised to decline it. If the bird then stopped calling, a person who had answered would die. But if the calls continued, the person would have a long life.
- The Colorado Utes believed that the whippoorwill was one of the gods of the night and could transform a frog into the Moon.
- The Iroquois believed that moccasin flowers were the shoes of whippoorwills.
Have you ever heard the call of a whippoorwill? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Joel M. Vance
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I was two and a half years old when my father died and my mother and I moved to New Jersey to be near her family. My grandparents had a little cottage in Point Pleasant, NJ and we all would listen to the whippoorwill in the early evening. My grandfather would tell us stories as we listened and it was truly a magical time for me.
I was two and a half years old when my father died and my mother and I moved to New Jersey to be near her family. My grandparents had a little cottage in Point Pleasant, NJ and we all would listen to the whippoorwill in the early evening. My grandfather would tell us stories as we listened and it was truly a magical time for me.
Just this year I’ve come across this bird! I think I might’ve heard it before in a great distance but now I believe they are living under my porch roof… I’m kind of scared now that the Omen is of death if you hear them close to the home. They are VERY close and very loud and go on for hours on end. I hope he finds his mate soon and that the omen is not true!
I’m in central eastern Ontario Canada btw
I haven’t heard a whippoorwill sing in a long time. But the night my daddy was dying. I heard one sing for hours that night.
Rarely do I check email just fyi
Yes I have always cherish the call of the Whippoorwill when I was growing up my family spent months at the lake in the summertime spring and fall, and I was almost rocked to sleep like a euphoria to the song as a whippoorwill I will never forget how peaceful and how serene it made me feel I feel like at night the water was so smooth and the air was so steel and now I have one at my house every year every year he’s in the woods behind the house and we’re close to water and we have ponds and sand in Georgia. Not far outside Atlanta and I just love that bird I’ll tell you I love the song, the memories it’s like I can see like I’m there again at the lake as a young child as a young man and I have just always been fascinated and just so , it’s like a buzz it’s crazy but it takes me somewhere that I really really cherish I mean after all, I can close my eyes and see exactly where I’m at almost every time every year it’s crazy, so yeah, I love this bird and I have one here at the house now for about four years. I don’t know how long is gonna be there he’s singing his ass off all night long and I love it I crack the wind at night , just so I can hear him all night long man what a wonderful song so God bless the Whippoorwill that’s it. I could talk for hours about the memories. Yeah I love this bird I’ve actually seen the bird and I cannot believe the camouflage is crazy in the daytime. I saw the bird he was at the bottom of the tree, but he was on the tree. He was about a foot off the ground and he was standing on the tree sideways. You know he wasn’t vertical are you wasn’t horizontal he was vertical, but he went pointed up and down his pointed left and right, you know , how peaceful that guy just chilling out looked. He looked right at me and I’ll write him. I said God bless you and I think that Burdett knew I meant no harm because he just chilled out. I never moved in. I was there a good 10 minutes talking to him. Great bird there are so many people that hate that song everybody I meet just about and I’m just like really I don’t get it so for me good memories, good places good Times, my life I had a good childhood and that bird is important part of it.
Adios my friends
That is such a nice story. I just heard the Whip-poor-will for the first two 2 nights straight. What a beautiful melodic sound. I can see why its song brings back memories. I am so happy these birds are still here.
When I was a young girl, I would be laying in a feather bed in my grandparents log cabin in Brown County, Indiana. I heard the Whippoorwill serenading me in the still of a summer night. For me, the serenade of the Whipporwill was a blessing I longed to experience at my grandparents cabin. No air-conditioning so you could soak in the night sounds uninterrupted. Beautiful memories stored in my mind. I live in Texas now and long to hear the serenade of the Whippoorwill.
I have seen the Nighthawks flying overhead few times their a relative of the Whippoorwill and the poorwill is a the only
Bird in North America that can hibernate
Yes I hear it most every night....
I heard a bird at night, approximately 3:45 AM whistling outside of my window. This went on for about 15 minutes and then I start looking up. What birds in Illinois make that sound. I didn’t realize there were so many out there until I went across information about death or a bad omen with an eastern whippoorwill, and then I listen to the sound, and it is exactly the sound of the bird that I’m hearing outside of my window. I suddenly felt panic pressure in my chest and the feeling of dread. Maybe it was due to the omen of someone dying close to you in the house or what not but it was enough for me to go check on my son. After 45 minutes, the bird has stopped, but this was the only experience I’ve had with a bird of this nature in the wee hours of the morning. .
