Observation of Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) and Bats (Chiroptera) Feeding Concurrently

摘要

Records of bats and birds concurrently exploiting the same food source are rare in the literature. We observed an instance of bats and Chordeiles minor (Common Nighthawk) foraging in artificial light around the Washington Monument. Our observation corroborates earlier evidence that bats and Common Nighthawks both exploit the foraging opportunity created by artificial lights. Because the monument provided spatial perspective, we were also able to observe that bats and Common Nighthawks foraged at different heights, suggesting that they partitioned the available foraging space vertically.