The Nighthawk’s Evening: Notes of a Field Biologist

The Nighthawk’s Evening: Notes of a Field Biologist is a work of science writing that will appeal to traditional birders, students, the new punk birder movement, and anyone who is fascinated by urban wildlife. It is the story of a woman who leaves her office job in Portland, Oregon, in her late-30s to become a wildlife biologist studying nighthawks.

Birders have long puzzled over this acrobatic night-flying bird that nests on rooftops and flocks in the thousands as it treks from Alaska to Argentina and back every year. But what is like to hold a wild bird that few have seen up close? Nighthawks are strange animals, reptiles with feathers, sleepy if you stumble across them during the day, but quick, agile, and especially adept at survival. They have the ability to withstand extreme temperatures and adapt to many habitats, but, nonetheless, they are struggling in the Anthropocene.

Gretchen Newberry investigates the hidden world of wildlife around us through this mysterious species. Her search for these illusive birds was an improvised and quixotic adventure. The book takes the reader along her journey, from beaches to forests, grasslands, and urban rooftops across North America. Along the way, she explores what nighthawks have meant to the peoples of North America, their uncertain future, and how their survival and role as bug eaters might address ongoing environmental issues at our farms and in our cities in an age of insect-borne diseases and agricultural pests.