Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada (B), Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, St Kitts And Nevis, St Lucia, St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), St Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uruguay (NB), USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (NB).
Vagrant to Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, St Helena, United Kingdom.
Population
Estimated population is 11,000,000 (2010).
Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) [XC582239]
by Richard E. Webster from Quilcene, Jefferson County, Washington, United States (flight call, booming)
Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) [XC657361]
by Sue Riffe from Swift Brook Road junction, Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument, Penobscot County, Maine, United States (song)
Subspecies
Formerly considered conspecific with Antillean Nighthawk (Chordeiles gundlachii), but the two are sympatric in southern Florida.
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Nacunda Nighthawk (Chordeiles nacunda).
The following 9 subspecies are recognised:
minor (Forster, 1771) - Most of central and southern Canada south to northern and north-eastern USA. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Nacunda Nighthawk (Chordeiles nacunda).
hesperis Grinnell, 1905 - South-western Canada and western USA.
sennetti Coues, 1888 - Central-southern Canada and north-central USA.
howelli Oberholser, 1914 - West-central and south-central USA.
henryi Cassin, 1855 - South-western USA and central-northern Mexico.
aserriensis Cherrie, 1896 - South-central USA and extreme north-eastern Mexico.
chapmani Coues, 1888 - South-eastern USA.
neotropicalis Selander & Alvarez del Toro, 1955 - Eastern and southern Mexico, and possibly this subspecies in Guatemala.
panamensis Eisenmann, 1962 - Nicaragua south to Panama, and possibly also north to eastern Honduras and Belize.