Bird
Common Nighthawk
Chordeiles minor
A summer resident that nests in Alabama. Found in all 67 counties, across 26 habitats.
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 67 counties
- Habitats
- 26

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- Summer
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 67 counties
- Habitats
- 26
- Habitat models
- Summer
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Alabama 26
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Cliffs, ledges and rocky summits

Glades, barrens and outcrops on limestone

Granite and other acidic rock outcrops


Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.




Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Forests and open woodlands on dry ridges and slopes, often oak or pine.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.
Forests between dry and moist, often oak-hickory on slopes.
Forests on moist but not wet ground, such as rich slopes and ravines.
Flat, sandy Coastal Plain pine woodlands, wetter than sandhills and denser than savannas.
Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Streams, rivers and their banks
Flowing water and its banks, bars and rocky shoals.
Tree plantations and managed pine
Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
Other habitats in its models (190)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer.
- Developed, Medium Intensity Summer.
- Developed, High Intensity Summer.
- Quarries, Mines, Gravel Pits and Oil Wells Summer.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Barren Land Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Louisiana Beach Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southwest Florida Beach Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Interior Calcareous Cliff and Talus Summer.
- Central Interior Acidic Cliff and Talus Summer.
- North-Central Appalachian Circumneutral Cliff and Talus Summer.
- North-Central Appalachian Acidic Cliff and Talus Summer.
- Southern Appalachian Montane Cliff Summer.
- Southern Appalachian Rocky Summit Summer.
- Central and Southern Appalachian Northern Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Plain Oak-Hickory Upland - Hardwood Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest-Hardwood Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Plain Oak-Hickory Upland - Juniper Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Oak Forest - Xeric Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northeastern Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Crosstimbers Oak Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Dry Oak Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ouachita Montane Oak Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Beech-Maple Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Maple-Basswood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Oak Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central and Southern Appalachian Montane Oak Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Bluff Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Loess Bluff Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Dry and Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central and South Texas Coastal Fringe Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Chenier and Upper Texas Coastal Fringe Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Mississippi River Alluvial Plain Dry-Mesic Loess Slope Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East-Central Texas Plains Post Oak Savanna and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East-Central Texas Plains Riparian Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Dry Oak Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Lower Mississippi River Dune Woodland and Forest Summer.
- Edwards Plateau Limestone Savanna and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Mississippi Delta Maritime Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Western Great Plains Wooded Draw and Ravine Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Crowley's Ridge Mesic Loess Slope Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Mesic Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Maritime Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Maritime Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Hardwood Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Woodland Modifier Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Virginia/Pitch Pine Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Loblolly Pine Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest - Offsite Pine Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Allegheny-Cumberland Dry Oak Forest and Woodland - Pine Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest - Pine modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-Heath Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dry Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Appalachian Shale Barrens Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Interior Highlands Dry Acidic Glade and Barrens Summer.
- Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest and Woodland Summer.
- Central Appalachian Oak and Pine Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Appalachian Hemlock-Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Pine-Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Appalachian Pine-Oak Rocky Woodland Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Sandhill Oak and Shortleaf Pine Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northern Crowley's Ridge Sand Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Cove Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood and Mixed Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Open Understory Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-Line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland Summer.
- Southern Appalachian Montane Pine Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northeastern Interior Pine Barrens Summer.
- East-Central Texas Plains Pine Forest and Woodland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine-Bluestem Woodland Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Central and Southern Appalachian Spruce-Fir Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Florida Peninsula Inland Scrub Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Tamaulipan Mixed Deciduous Thornscrub Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Tamaulipan Mesquite Upland Scrub Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Tamaulipan Calcareous Thornscrub Summer, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Oak Savanna Summer, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Oak Barrens Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Glade and Barrens Summer.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Summer.
- Central Appalachian Alkaline Glade and Woodland Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Catahoula Barrens Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
- Southern Appalachian Grass and Shrub Bald - Shrub Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Appalachian Grass and Shrub Bald - Herbaceous Modifier Summer.
- Western Great Plains Mesquite Woodland and Shrubland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Eastern Highland Rim Prairie and Barrens - Dry Modifier Summer.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Summer.
- North-Central Interior Sand and Gravel Tallgrass Prairie Summer.
- Arkansas Valley Prairie and Woodland Summer.
- Central Tallgrass Prairie Summer.
- Southern Blackland Tallgrass Prairie Summer.
- Southeastern Great Plains Tallgrass Prairie Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Calcareous Prairie Summer.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Calcareous Prairie Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Summer.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Summer.
- Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Summer.
- Southern Appalachian Grass and Shrub Bald Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Summer.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer.
- Recently Burned Shrubland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Treed Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Summer.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Summer.
- Modified/Managed Southern Tall Grassland Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Clethra Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Bog and Fen Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Summer.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Tamaulipan Riparian Systems Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Mississippi River Riparian Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Red River Large Floodplain Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Summer, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Atlantic Coastal Plain Wet Longleaf Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Wet Longleaf Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Central Florida Pine Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Pine-Hardwood Flatwoods Summer.
- North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
- Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Hardwood Flatwoods Summer, beside its main habitat.
Seasons in Alabama
- Summer: nests here, in all 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 1168
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Alabama. Shared habitat, not food.
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- Pignut HickoryCarya glabra
- SweetgumLiquidambar styraciflua
- TuliptreeLiriodendron tulipifera
- White OakQuercus alba
- Poison-ivyToxicodendron radicans
- White AshFraxinus americana
- Post OakQuercus stellata
- American BeechFagus grandifolia
- Southern Red OakQuercus falcata
- Flowering DogwoodCornus florida
- Mountain LaurelKalmia latifolia
- Loblolly PinePinus taeda
- Water OakQuercus nigra
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Shagbark HickoryCarya ovata
- Mockernut HickoryCarya tomentosa
- Hairy Bush HoneysuckleDiervilla rivularis
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- BlackgumNyssa sylvatica
- Virginia CreeperParthenocissus quinquefolia
- Black OakQuercus velutina
- Winged ElmUlmus alata
- SparkleberryVaccinium arboreum
Wildlife 257
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.
- Pine WarblerDendroica pinus
- Rock PigeonColumba livia
- Royal TernThalasseus maximus
- Ruddy TurnstoneArenaria interpres
- SanderlingCalidris alba
- Western SandpiperCalidris mauri
- WilletTringa semipalmata
- Black-throated Green WarblerDendroica virens
- Buff-bellied HummingbirdAmazilia yucatanensis
- Horned LarkEremophila alpestris
- House FinchCarpodacus mexicanus
- Lapland LongspurCalcarius lapponicus
- Nelson's Sharp-tailed SparrowAmmodramus nelsoni
- Purple MartinProgne subis
- Red KnotCalidris canutus
- Sandwich TernThalasseus sandvicensis
- Thayer's GullLarus thayeri
- Vesper SparrowPooecetes gramineus
- Western MeadowlarkSturnella neglecta
- Willow FlycatcherEmpidonax traillii
- Black-bellied PloverPluvialis squatarola
- BobolinkDolichonyx oryzivorus
- Marbled GodwitLimosa fedoa
- Red CrossbillLoxia curvirostra
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP summer habitat model for Common Nighthawk
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)













































