Website Optimization

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The animal on the cover of Website Optimization is a common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor). Members of the nightjar family, nighthawks are medium-size birds, measuring 9 inches long and 2.2–3.5 ounces, with a wingspan of roughly 21 inches. They have large heads and tiny bills disguising a cavernous mouth. Like its nearest relative, the owl, the nighthawk’s plumage comprises well-camouflaged shades of black, brown, and gray.

Common nighthawks inhabit all of North America, and are known by several other names depending on region. In many parts of the U.S. and particularly in the south, they are called bullbats; “bull” is believed to derive from the bellowing sound the male makes during the breeding ritual, and “bat” because nighthawks’ erratic flight resembles that of a bat. Nighthawks are also known as “goatsuckers” due to an ancient belief that they fed on goats’ milk at night. (In actuality, any evidence of the birds’ presence near goats is likely attributable to the flying insects in the surrounding fields, which constitute much of the nighthawk diet.) Other names include the Louisiana French Creole crapau volans (“flying toad”), “pick-a-me-dick” (an imitation of one of the bird’s notes), pisk, pork and beans, will-o'-wisp, burnt-land bird, and mosquito hawk.

Nighthawks are quite beneficial to humans, as they eat many of the insects that destroy vegetation or are otherwise harmful, such as beetles, boll-weevils, and mosquitoes. The nighthawk opens its beak as it flies through ...