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Hi I'm new here and I live in WV, two miles from VA.  I have a LARGE dark night bird that follows me around at night and "reeks" at me.  I would say it was a nighthawk, but it is too big. Wing span of 3 ft, not chunky like an owl.   It is not a great horned owl.  I saw him last night, not the same bird.  Can anyone please tell me what it is?  My son has threaten to shoot it, (he wouldn't) just to see what it is.

Can you try to get a photo of it? Try the WhatBird Expert to identify it if you can.

Yours in birding,

ZBirdNerd

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ZBirdNerd

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Hi Reek.  Welcome to Whatbird.  As tempting as it may be to put the 'ultimate' stop to the bird in order to ID it, PLEASE, don't!  Just continue to watch it and if you can get your hands on a good bird field guide and look at the section on nighthawks and nightjars and study them maybe you could determine which is yours by process of elimination(location, size, color, sound, behavior)...and, as Zbirdnerd, suggested, get a picture if you can.  also, have fun in the process!

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Matthew 6:26

I don't have a camera that will take long range night pictures.  It looks like an eagle or hawk, definately not owl. You can see it silhouetted against the sky sitting in trees and flying. It's eyes glow when you shine a light on it . I've scanned the web and bird books.  This bird or it's off spring has been here in the summer and fall for years.  The sound is like a night hawk but according to what I've read, they're not that big.  I LOVE whip-poor-wills, so glad we have them. 

Thanks for the reply!

My guess would be a Chuck-will's-widow. Similar to a whip-poor-will, common nighthawk. The chuck-will's-widow has the longest wing span out of the three. I think its about 26 inches.