This article has been published in the Wrentit newsletter of the Pasadena Audubon Society
Common Poorwills Ten Minutes From Home
By Shuxing (Miles) Wang
While browsing eBird one evening, I noticed something surprising. I came across several checklists reporting Common Poorwills at a trail called Mount Lukens Truck Trail, less than 10 minutes from home. Although I had seen and heard Common Poorwills before, I never had a chance to observe one up close; they were all far away when I saw them. So, I decided to check it out the next evening.
Just ten minutes later, we got to the trailhead. It was almost like we entered another world: It was away from human noises, full of birds, and gave us a stunning overview of Los Angeles and even some of the ocean near the skyline. We started walking on the trail, and Wrentits and Ash-throated Flycatchers were constantly calling everywhere, and a pair of Lawrence’s Goldfinch showed up. We even found two snake tracks crossing the dirt road that were both perfectly preserved.
The sun soon fell behind the ocean in the distance, and I turned on my headlamp. We did not have to walk very far before a glowing orange eye suddenly appeared in my headlamp beam. It was the eye shine from our target Common Poorwill! We walked a little closer, and we could clearly see the Common Poorwill quietly resting on the road.
The Common Poorwill is quite small for a nightjar, even smaller than a Mourning Dove. It is all gray and black but has a white collar, some white at the edge of the tail, and some buffy feathers near the collar. It sits quietly and then suddenly launches off the ground and flutters in the sky like a butterfly before finally landing back in the exact same spot. It’s more like a flycatcher, and not so much like a Lesser Nighthawk that chases insects like a swallow.
Also like some flycatchers, the Common Poorwill has long bristles around its bill, which are supposed to protect the huge eyes during bursts of fast flights. When its head turns at the right angle, it shows its brilliant purple, orange, and yellow eyeshine, which was even present in the sky when it decided to change its spot and flew away.
Just as we thought the evening was already complete, another Poorwill flew over my head and landed on the side of the road behind some bushes. We went over to the side and could kind of see an eye shine obscured by lots of vegetation. We moved around to the other side, and the bird was right in front of us, only a few feet away! We slowly moved a little bit, just enough to make it completely in view, with no obstacles in front of it at all.
I took tons of photos, and it finally flew away. It was hard to believe these amazing birds live so close to home, and they are so abundant on this little-known trail. We made our way back to the car as we took our last look at the unbelievable view from the trail. I was left wondering how many other trails across the San Gabriel foothills are still waiting to be explored; there must be way more Poorwills than we thought.
All photos by Shuxing (Miles) Wang
View this article on the digital version of the Wrentit at https://www.pasadenaaudubon.org/newsletter/wrentit_2026_09.pdf
Special thanks to the Wrentit editor Renée Fabian for her thoughtful edits, which made this article more polished and fluent!