Up close and personal

I got an up close and personal encounter with a Whip-poor-will. I couldn't believe how well camouflaged it was. It blended right in with the leaves. It was sitting in the sun just 5 feet off a park trail that I walk all the time. When I bent over to look more closely at it, it opened it's mouth and hissed at me. Yikes, does it have a HUGE mouth! IT was a lot bigger than I'd expected for a bird about the size of a large mourning dove or small pigeon. It was like the size of the whole head. Good thing they only eat insects. My dog was sure interested in that bird after it hissed at us. I was upset that I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture of it. They normally sleep on the ground in the woods during the day, not out in the grass in a field. Here's a link to the enature.com website field guide: http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=1&shapeID=964&display=2&curPageNum=28&recnum=BD0141

A close encounter and no camera...oh no! I love hearing these birds in the spring. We have a Chuck Wills Widow on the neighboring property...very vocal. I can hardly wait!

How cool, BFG! I've heard it's extremely hard to see them in the wild. We hear them all around our property in the summer.

Which bird says "chip off a white oak"?

I've never seen one of those before! I don't think I'd heard one before, either -- just heard of them. Thanks for posting about him!

I didn't see your post...those things are scary when they open their mouth and hiss. The one we had as aguest, last year did that and scared me, I was glad that it was insectivorious. And the camoflague is unreal, even inside it works...
I used to live in Windermere, and I have an Aunt who lives in Orlando, Florida, is my home state.