nightfowl

plural nightfowls · alternative night fowl · alternative night-fowl

1. Any of various birds active during the nighttime or associated with night; a nocturnal bird.

   Upon the middle of the night, Waking she heard the nightfowl crow: The cock sung out an hour ere light

   1830, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Mariana

   3 more examples

   Now this wilderness was so utterly waste that not even the barking of a dog or the sound of a nightfowl could be heard.

   1899, Rudyard Kipling, Letters of Marque, page 63

   He could see the ghostly outline of the distant peaks of the mountains, he could hear the haunting cries of nightfowl and coyote; but these things failed to interest him.

   1903, Ridgwell Cullum, The Devil's Keg: The Story of the Foss River Ranch, page 171

   An eagle? No, that could scarcely be; eagles were not nightfowl, nor would one descend this close to humans.

   1980, Poul Anderson, Conan the Rebel, page 165

   Synonyms: night bird