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Nightjar Survey Training

Spring 2024

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Nightjar overview & ID tips
Major threats to Nightjars
Actions - what can we do?
Call playbacks
Canadian Nightjar Survey Protocols
Questions

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/150237337554563463/

Workshop Overview:

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What is a Nightjar?

Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Caprimuliformes, Family: Caprimulgidae

Characterizations: nocturnal, insectivorous bird, ground nesting, brownish plumage
Large eyes and mouth, and distinctive call
Global distribution, ~100 species

Common Nighthawk

Eastern Whip-poor-will

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Eastern Whip-poor-will

Common Nighthawk

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Feeding Habits

Aerial insectivores
On a clear full moon, they may hunt all night
Nighthawks: beetles, caddisflies and moths.
Whip-poor-wills: large moths, scarab beetles, flying ants

https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/common-nighthawk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/scott2403photos/3693681964

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Nesting & Biology

Lays eggs directly on the ground
Incubate for up to three weeks
Susceptible to disturbance

Dogs, hikers, off-trail vehicles, noise etc.

More research is needed (e.g. we don’t know if they return to same breeding sites)

https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/whip-p1/introduction

https://dispatchesfromthefield1.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/where-theres-a-whip-poor-will-theres-a-way/

Philina English

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Common Nighthawk

(Chordeiles minor)

ID: mottled brown, white wing bars, forked tail.
Status: Special Concern-ON, Threatened-Canada
80% population decline from 1968 to 2005
Found almost everywhere in Canada starting late May/ early June
Crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk)
Live in open areas (grasslands, clear cuts, rock barrens, wetlands etc.)
Wing booms - for territorial defense or mating

Pat Gaines (license)

Kai Schreiber

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Common Nighthawk Population Estimates

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Eastern Whip-poor-will

(Caprimulgus vociferous)

ID: Mottled brown, small bird. Males have a white collar (buff-coloured on the female)
Status: Threatened (ON and Canada)
75% population decline in past 50 years
Habitat: mix of wooded and open areas
Most of Canadian population is in ON & QC
Distinct call: “Whip-poor-will”
Breeding is timed with the full moon in June

https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/whip-p1/introduction

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Common Nighthawk Population Estimates

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Threats to Nightjars

Many unknowns.
Declining insect populations*
Habitat loss and fragmentation*
Climate change & extreme weather*
Fire suppression (and changes to forest management)
Pets and human-associated animals
Light pollution
Invasive species
Loss of gravel roofs (Nighthawk)

(Source: The Guardian Weekly)

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Ecological Roles

Birds contribute to healthy ecosystems via:

Seed dispersal
Insect/ pest control
Pollination

They are signals declining environmental health (and therefore loss of ecological functions and services)

Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren (link)

Henrik Larsson/Shutterstock

Jason Rogers

Precautionary principle. *important to remember that many plants rely on animals to disperse their seeds so they can reproduce. Many plants evolved with particular bird species.. By dropping seeds while flying to a safe location, inadvertantly carrying seeds on their body, dropping nuts to the ground while feeding, thereby allowing for contact with the ground, and through their droppings.

“Nighthawks eat queen ants, wasps, beetles, caddisflies, moths, bugs, mayflies, flies, crickets, grasshoppers, and other insects. They may also eat a small amount of vegetation.” (no mention of mosquitoes/ pest insects specifically)

Mainly beetles, true bugs, and ants
“Steep declines among many aerial insectivores, such as this Common Nighthawk, are a signal of declining environmental health. Birds help maintain healthy ecosystems by providing services such as insect control, pollination, and seed dispersal” (2016 PIF report0

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Surveys and Data Collection

Hard animals to study
Data collected is often biased
Remote sensing = very useful
Motus towers help track animal movement in real time
Volunteers (via citizen science) are essential for studying birds

Long Point Bird Obs.

Canadian Geographic

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Common Nighthawk call while flying (peent)

Similar bird sound: link

(if on the ground=NOT a nighthawk)

Common Nighthawk (call & wing boom - link)

Eastern Whip-poor-will (call - link)

For further call recordings, visit Dendroica, or the Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library

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What It Means to Volunteer:

Time commitment: 5 - 6 hours total

Review protocol documents
Run through survey route during the day
Actual survey: approx. 2 hours
Sending in data to us

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Your Toolkit will include:

Canadian Nightjar Survey Protocol
Nightjar Survey Reporting Form.
A map of your assigned survey region.
A Safety Sheet, reviewing best practices in bear country, and how to avoid noxious plants like Poison Ivy.
(optional) “Backyard Whip-poor-will Reporting Form”, for monitoring on your own property.

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The Canadian Nightjar Survey

Four main objectives:

Habitat associations and critical habitat mapping
Long-term population monitoring
Distribution and abundance mapping
Environmental assessment

Consistency in protocols is very important!

1. Habitat associations and critical habitat mapping: roadside citizen science data will cover a large geographic expanse and can be integrated with more locally-collected, non-roadside data to characterize nightjar habitat.

2. Long-term population monitoring: data collected will be compared to Breeding Bird Survey data after several years of data collection to determine whether the protocol increases the precision of population trend estimates.

3. Distribution and abundance mapping: data collected will help refine our understanding of the distribution and abundance of nightjars across Canada.

4. Environmental assessment: survey data could be used to inform environmental assessments by providing a baseline against which we can evaluate the potential impacts of development to nightjar species and their habitat

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Protocol Overview

Survey once per year (late May 23 - mid June)
Begin the survey 30 minutes before sunset
Each route has ~10-12 stops, spaced 1.6 km or more apart
When arriving to your stop wait before starting survey
Record sounds and sightings for 6 minutes at each stop.
DO NOT use whistles, audio calls, or any method that coaxes birds to call or come closer
DO NOT use a flashlight to search for reflections of bird eyes

The entire survey will take about 2 hours

WildResearch member

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Establishing a new route

You are given a map of your route, but you must set the stop locations.

Ideally 1.6 km apart (use your car odometer).
If your survey route road has curves, try to place stops 1.6 km apart straight-line distance. (Using a GPS to help)
Please ensure that your stops include a safe place to pull over and park.
Avoid stop locations with excessive noise (e.g. located beside running water, barking dogs, etc.)
Adding distance between stops is better than placing stops < 1.6 km
Not all of your stopping points need to be on the same road. You may turn onto different roads to find a safe place to park.
Scout your route during daylight to become familiar with the stops.

Some routes may never have been surveyed before, in which case the location of the stops is at your discretion, and will require extra scouting time. You will be provided with a map of your route including satellite imagery, and you will be required to collect information on stop location (see Section 5.4). Please choose your stop locations with the following in mind:

Stops should ideally be 1.6 km apart. Use your car odometer to measure distance.

If your survey route road has curves, try to place stops 1.6 km apart straight-line distance. Using a GPS will help determine straight-line distance.

Your safety is of first priority during nightjar surveys, so please ensure that your stops include a safe place to pull over and park.

Avoid stop locations with excessive noise (e.g. located beside running water, barking dogs, etc.)

It is better to add distance between stops rather than placing stops less than 1.6 km apart so that you avoid counting the same birds twice.

Not all of your stopping points need to be on the same road. Turning onto different roads may be necessary to find a safe place to park.

We recommend scouting your route during daylight to become familiar with the stops.

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Sample data entry: The observer detected one Common Nighthawk calling during the first 3 minutes of survey at Stop 1, and performing wing-booms in minute 3. The observer then detected a second Common Nighthawk calling at Stop 1 during the 3rd minute and 4th minute of the survey, so began a new row on the data sheet for this bird. This observer used the best judgment in deciding these were two individual Common Nighthawks, and not the same bird that moved after initial detection. At stop 2, the observer did not detect any birds until the survey ended, so they did not record any data. At Stop 3, the observer detected one Common Nighthawk calling and performing several wing-booms per minute for the entire 6 minutes several hundred metres to the northeast. A Common Poorwill was also heard calling in minutes 2-4 less than 100 metres to the south. At Stop 4, the observer saw two Common Nighthawks fly over in minute 2, one of which made a “peent”.

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Codes to know:

1. Wing-boom (W): If the bird performed a territorial wing-boom in that one-minute interval (Common Nighthawks only).

2. Call (C): If you heard the bird call during that one-minute interval.

3. Visual (V): If you saw the bird, but did not hear it during that one-minute interval.

4. Not detected (N): If you did not detect the bird during that one-minute interval.

CONI = Common Nighthawk

EWPW = Eastern Whippoorwill

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Recording Survey Stops

Please write in the coordinates (longitude & latitude) for each of your survey stops

How to do this:

Take a waypoint with a handheld GPS
Use your phone: there are several free GPS apps available - see the protocol document.
Google Maps: “drop a pin”
Mark a point on the paper map

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Other nocturnal birds to note

American Woodcock

Crepuscular bird, forest edges
Look for spiraling flight displays
Listen for their peent calls

Yellow Rail:

Nocturnal, wetlands bird
Distinctive clicking sounds (like morse code)

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Other species continued...

Barred Owl
Eastern Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Snowy Owl
Great Gray Owl
Long-eared Owl
Short-eared Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl

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Further Resources:

The Land Between has a page on iNaturalist where you can report animal observations in the region.
Dendroica: helps with bird identification (has recordings and photos)
Xeno-canto: online database of recordings of birds from volunteers

Common Nighthawk (make sure to listen to some recordings with wing-booms)
Eastern Whip-poor-will

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library is

the world’s largest collection of wildlife sounds and videos.

Merlin app

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Safety

Conducting survey in a team of 2+
If surveying alone, tell someone where your route is and what time you will return
Park vehicle well off the road during survey stops
Stand off the road surface when conducting surveys
Leave parking lights on & hazard lights
Wear a reflective vest or use a headlamp
Conduct the survey near the road to avoid trespassing on private property
Check clothing and skin for ticks

Ryan Johnson

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Before you begin your survey:

Read through the protocols carefully
Do a daytime run-through of your route to familiarize yourself with the stop locations
Learn to ID Nightjars by sound and sight
Learn to ID other nocturnal species by sound and sight

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Thank you for your support, and good luck with your survey!

Project partners:

Please contact us with any further questions:

TLB Office: (705) 457-1222

Xavier’s Cell: (519) 802-7888

CitizenScienceTLB@gmail.com