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Small nightjar, round wings, fluttery flight. Orange eyeshine in white light. This is the first time detecting them on a night hike since October. Several small to medium moths were also flying about despite the 46F temperature. Moon just over 1/2 full. Scattered clouds over a mostly clear sky.

Ambling across the road in fog, stopped to take a photo of it crouched in a Coyote Brush ‘cove.’ I did not approach, but used digital zoom to get a shot. As I was photographing, it closed its eyes; bored, ready to ‘pounce’, either or both?

We can tell that this Is a kingbird by the yellow belly, gray throat, large bill, slight crest. Note, primary feather shape too looks good for a kingbird, and relatively blunt wings, p9-7 about the same length help ID it as tropical. White webs in the outer tail are not seen either helping to eliminate an extremely unseasonable Western Kingbird. The only other possibility is Couch’s Kingbird and that would be really rare and likely have a smaller bill (though that would be hard to accurately assess in a photo) Despite the terrible color rendition of the photo the bird does not appear to have rust or brown in the wings and tail, helping to eliminate Myiarchus flycatchers (Ash Throated / Great Crested Flycatcher) which also have different shaped wings and wing feathers and would be very rare at this time and place.