Studying Night Jars on Private lands

Last spring, with funding from the Georgia Ornithological Society, Birds Georgia began recruiting private landowners for a pilot nightjar study. Every few years, Birds Georgia selects a ‘focal species’, which drives our conservation, education, and community engagement efforts. From 2023 to 2025, our focal species is the Chuck-will’s-widow. More often heard than seen, these captivating creatures belong to a group of birds known as nightjars. 

Nightjars, including those found in Georgia (Chuck-will’s-widows, Eastern Whip-poor-wills, and Common Nighthawks) are aerial insectivores, and feed mainly on flying insects, such as moths and beetles. They are typically active around dusk and dawn, and often call throughout the night during bright, moonlit spring and summer nights. You’d likely recognize their calls, as the names imitate their vocalizations: whip-POOR-will, whip-POOR-will, chuck-WILL’s-widow, chuck-WILL’s-widow.

As is the case with most aerial insectivores, nightjar populations are in severe decline. Studies estimate that Chuck-will’s-widow populations have declined by 63% and Eastern Whip-poor-will’s by nearly 70% in the last 50 years (Source: Breeding Bird Survey). This is due to many factors, but habitat loss, fragmentation, and widespread pesticide use are likely contributors. There is still so much we don’t know about these birds. 

For that reason, in 2024, Birds Georgia began a pilot study with the goal of learning more about their distribution throughout the state, how land management strategies such as thinning or burning contribute to their presence, and how to best detect them on large working lands. Ten properties participated; from family farms, to expertly executed timber rotations, to newly acquired conservation easements, these properties varied in magnitude and management. However, they all share a common goal: they endeavor to attract wildlife and improve their habitat. Whether it be regular burning, thinning, removal of invasive species, enrollment in conservation or technical assistance programs, or a general awareness of meeting the needs of local wildlife; each site was uniquely poised to provide habitat to nightjars. 

We set out Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs), self-contained audio recording devices,  at each site for approximately six weeks during early summer. ARUs are becoming popular tools to survey for birds, especially for species that are more cryptic,  may not be as responsive to call-response surveys, or call during times of the day when it is difficult for humans to observe them. Since nightjars sing between dusk and dawn, ARUs provide an ideal method to survey for them in place of a human observer. Each unit was programmed to record for specific two-hour intervals each day and night. The units were placed in uplands, where nightjars were expected. . Some had burned as recently as two months prior, and others had never been burned. Forest composition ranged from 100% managed Loblolly Pine stands, to old-growth Longleaf with a diverse understory, to mixed hardwood-pine stands with dense midstories. 

Chuck-will’s-widows require multiple habitat types during the breeding season, favoring denser hardwood areas for nesting, and adjacent openings for feeding. We successfully detected Chuck-will’s-widows at seven of the 10 sites. Where Chuck-will’s-widows were present, Common Nighthawks were also present at two of those sites, and Eastern Whip-poor-wills were present at one site. While our pilot study did not reveal the intricacies of the nightjars’ habitat selection, they were more likely to be detected at properties where habitats were heterogeneous - e.g. more diverse. 

One property, consisting of recently burned upland pines bordered by a bottomland hardwood forest, mature Longleaf, agricultural fields with pollinator-friendly borders, and young Longleaf regeneration was a recipe for higher avian diversity; a total of 52 species were detected here in the breeding season, including game birds such as Northern Bobwhite and American Woodcock; raptors such as Swallow-tailed Kite, Mississippi Kite, and Barred Owl; and songbirds such as Hooded Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, and the ever-elusive Swainson’s Warbler. 

In conclusion, the more diverse your management plan, goals, and methods are, the more diverse the reward.

We will continue this work in 2025 and hope to learn more about nightjar habitat selection - interested? Contact [email protected] to inquire about participation.