"What's such a small nightbird doing abroad at this hour?".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Virgin In The Ice]

A lone nightbird wheeled above, the moonlight silver on its extended wings.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Dark Queen]

From somewhere on the shore a nightbird shrieked and a small animal squealed.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Vanishing Tower]

From the hollow by the dunes, a nightbird startled into flight with a soft whir of wings.    From Wordnik.com.  [Stormwarden]

Listening carefully, he determined it wasn't a fish or a nightbird diving for its catch in the river.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dragons of Winter Night]

I have one book to recommend and i think you'd appreciate it: Speaks the nightbird by Robert Mccammon.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock] Reference

A nightbird shrieked weirdly close to the house and a sudden gust of wind moaned through the pine trees.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Shadow of the East] Reference

I hear you lying telling me the sudden burst of valve arterial…plumes of the nightbird…I am so…—Shut up!.    From Wordnik.com.  [Over the Edge] Reference

The only sounds here were the stirrings of plants, the occasional skreek of a nightbird, and the soft thudding steps of the horses.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sick Cycle Carousel] Reference

These include "The light goes on and off and the nightbird calls" and "Come close to the stars, celestial balls" (thanks to Dave Ellis for this).    From Wordnik.com.  [Throwing Stones] Reference

The fireball had been close-followed by some stub-winged whooshing nightbird or hog-faced bat, flicking low to Inman's head, causing him to duck and walk stooped for three full strides.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cold Mountain]

Granted, he wouldn't have stayed a great snoring lump for long if there'd been trouble, but that was no comfort when you were straining your ears trying to tell if that was a nightbird, a bug, or a maneating whatever out there.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Silver Gryphon]

"I am indeed a nightbird," answered Mark, who looked anxious.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Precipice] Reference

Everything now was perfectly silent, not so much as the whisper of a reed or the whir of the wing of a nightbird fell upon their ears; and at last, in an awe-stricken whisper, Tom said.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dick o' the Fens A Tale of the Great East Swamp] Reference

All night the southern winds blew and shrieked and moaned like the pain that was biting at my heart; and all through it I heard the plaintive "Speak, wife!" of the nightbird echoing in the tumult outside!.    From Wordnik.com.  [The King of the Dark Chamber] Reference

It would make for a good handset to have if you happen to be a nightbird and hang out at all the local watering holes, where each single call and text message will literally make you the light and life of the party.    From Wordnik.com.  [Coolest Gadgets] Reference

Verily the whole presence of the man minded me of that nightbird; and when I think of his Master Seyfried, or Young Kubbeling, I often remember that he was ever wont to wear three wild-cats 'skins, which he laid on his breast and on each leg, as a remedy against pains he had.    From Wordnik.com.  [Complete Project Gutenberg Georg Ebers Works] Reference

The fearful owl (Nesasio solomonenis, VU), a Solomon Islands endemic, is the hotspot’s largest nightbird.    From Wordnik.com.  [Biological diversity in the East Melanesian Islands] Reference

In her hunger for his approach, she would at whiles pluck up the herbage about her by the roots, and toss handfuls this way and that, chiding the peaceful song of the nightbird in the leaves above her head; and she was sinking with fretfulness, when lo! from the opening arch of the glade a sudden light, and Bhanavar knew it for the Jewel in the fingers of her betrothed, by the strength of its effulgence.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Complete] Reference

The nightbird leaves his solitary retreat, the hollow of an ancient trunk, and disturbs the sad loneliness of the open places -- ".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Social Cancer] Reference

You know what a nightbird.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Zeppelin's Passenger] Reference

The sky-lark and the nightbird sing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 330, April 1843] Reference

Sarishan, my Gorgious gentleman, you, too, are a nightbird.    From Wordnik.com.  [Red Money] Reference

As night drew on, we heard them ` hoo-hooing, quack-quacking, 'keeping up the strangest concert imaginable; indeed, had not the consul assured me that frogs produced the noises, I should have supposed that they were caused by some species of nightbird; however, I am, I confess, no great hand at description, nor had we a naturalist on board, or I might have given you.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Three Lieutenants] Reference

And then in the churring of insects, in the sinister figures, in the ancient barrows, in the blue sky, in the moonlight, in the flight of the nightbird, in everything you see and hear, triumphant beauty, youth, the fulness of power, and the passionate thirst for life begin to be apparent; the soul responds to the call of her lovely austere fatherland, and longs to fly over the steppes with the nightbird.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Bishop and Other Stories] Reference