Center for Conservation Biology

United States Nightjar Survey Network

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New!!! Download copy of 2007 summary report

Download 2-page flyer for display at bird-club meetings and other events

Survey Results

This project was initiated in 2007. Results from annual surveys will be presented on this web site and as downloadable reports when they become available.

We introduced the Nightjar Survey Network to 10 states in the Southeastern U.S. in 2007. Volunteers adopted 90 routes for surveys and data for 59 routes were submitted at the time this report was generated. Volunteers counted a total of 215 Whip-poor-wills, 591 Chuck-will’s Widows, and 65 Common Nighthawks during the surveys. Nightjars were detected at 53 of 59 routes surveyed (90 % of total). Chuck-wills-widows were the most frequently detected species per route followed by Whip-poor-wills and then by Common Nighthawks. The number of birds detected per route ranged from 0-40 for Chuck-will’s Widows, 0-18 for Whip-poor-wills, and 0-14 for Common Nighthawks.

Survey data provide initial signals on how to improve future monitoring efforts. Understanding survey performance is important to determining correction factors needed to reduce systematic bias and random error of survey efforts.

We gratefully thank all participants that adopted routes or conducted surveys. This program's success relies entirely on volunteer participation.

The Nightjar Survey Network will be expanded in 2008 to cover remaining portions of the U.S. not currently being monitored for Nightjars. We urge all volunteers from 2007 to continue their participation in the program and ask for their help in recruiting new volunteers.

Table of 2007, first year results, by state and overall survey network.

State	Number of Routes Conducted	Avg. Whip-poor-wills per route ( +- SD)	Avg. Chuck-will’s Widows per route ( +- SD)	Avg. Common Nighthawks per route ( +- SD)
Alabama	7	3.3 + 6.23	15.0 + 13.25	0.3 + 0.48
Florida	14	0.0 + 0.00	15.4 + 12.32	3.5 + 4.75
Georgia	12	6.2 + 6.84	9.8 + 7.58	0.0 + 0.00
Mississippi	5	0.0 + 0.00	9.7 + 12.02	0.3 + 0.52
North Carolina	6	8.4 + 7.37	4.2 + 4.91	1.0 + 1.41
South Carolina	2	4.0 + 5.66	13.0 + 16.97	0.0 + 0.00
Tennessee	1	0.0 + 0.00	0.0 + 0.00	0.0 + 0.00
Virginia	11	6.2 + 7.32	4.4 + 5.59	0.0 + 0.00
West Virginia	1	0.0 + 0.00	0.0 + 0.00	0.0 + 0.00
All States	59	3.6 + 5.99	10.0 + 10.51	1.1 + 2.84

To download copy of 2007 report click here.