ID Help Needed

["Kristin Purdy" <kristinpurdy at comcast dot net>]

This morning at Fort Buenaventura I flushed a bird off the ground next 
to some thick vegetation and across from an open, grassy area.  The bird 
fluttered past me, looked like it was attempting to land on some low 
shrubs along the riverbank, and then flew across the river.  I lost 
sight of it while it was still over the water because it was descending 
and the bank vegetation obscured my view.  All of this happened in the 
wink of an eye.  Here's what I saw:

The bird was about the size of a shorebird like a Sanderling and it had 
a fluttering flight pattern.  The flight pattern was reminiscent of a 
Spottie, but the bird was more robust and it flapped the whole time I 
saw it (unlike the fluttering-glide pattern of a Spotted Sandpiper).  I 
couldn't see the head at all, in fact, as it flew away from me it 
appeared headless.  The rest of the body (I saw the upperparts only) was 
mottled and cryptically-colored brown.  The upper side of the wings 
showed no pattern that I could discern in that brief view.  

Now, here's the kicker.  The tail was relatively short and fanned.  As 
the bird flew away from me I was struck by the prominence of bright 
white outer tips of the tail feathers.  It appeared that about three 
retrices on each side of the tail had white tips of increasing length 
proceeding toward the outer feathers.  The white tips together looked 
like a small white triangle on either side of the end of the tail.  The 
center tail feathers were the same mottled cryptic brown as the rest of 
the bird.  

I had absolutely no idea what this bird was at the time.  Now I've got 
my nose in the books.  Based on those very distinct white triangles on 
the end of the tail and that the bird was on the ground, I think this 
could have been a male Common Poorwill.  

Can anyone offer any other suggestions or boost my ego and tell me I'm 
right?

Kris       

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