ABOUT
THE SURVEY
The Nightjar Survey Network was started in 2007 by The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary. The goal was to make a centralized online data entry portal for citizen scientists as well as professionals to conduct standardized annual nightjar surveys across the United States.
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Beginning in 2025, coordination of the Network transitioned to the Maine Natural History Observatory in partnership with BirdsCanada.
MISSION & HISTORY
In recent years, conservationists and the general public have come to share a general sense that populations of nightjars - an elusive order of nocturnal and crepuscular aerial insectivores - are dramatically declining. However, there were no standardized data available to help describe these changes or to help with reversing population losses. This survey program was created by researchers at the Center for Conservation Biology in 2007 to gain a better understanding on population status of these birds by implementing a standardized approach across the nation that will help determine the magnitude and scale of population changes to inform conservation and management actions. The Nightjar Survey Network relies entirely on volunteer participation. The program is coordinated as a partnership between the Maine Natural History Observatory and Birds Canada with the support of partner organizations at state and local levels throughout the continent.
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Nocturnal behaviors of nightjars are influenced strongly by moonlight. Activities such as calling and foraging increase under bright moonlight conditions and it is thought that breeding may actually be timed with the lunar schedule. Project protocol were designed to take advantage of these behaviors by conducting surveys only during bright moonlit nights so detection rates will be higher and more consistent.
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Nightjar surveys are only conducted ONE TIME PER YEAR, are easy to perform, and will not take more than two hours to complete. Volunteers conduct roadside counts at night, on bright moonlit nights during their respective survey widow (see "Timing" on our instructions page), by driving and stopping at stops along a predetermined route. At each point, the observer counts all nightjars seen or heard during a 6-minute period. No artificial broadcast of the species call is used. When surveying a route, you are gathering information on changes in nightjar populations over time while simultaneously increasing the knowledge on numerical changes in population to the composition of habitats in the landscape.
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We welcome you to adopt a survey route; your participation is key to our collective efforts to gather the information needed to inform the conservation of these fascinating birds.
PROJECT TIMELINE
2007
The CCB initiates the Nightjar Survey Network.
2021
CCB begins partnering with MNHO on project coordination.
2023
NSN partners with USFWS Atlantic Flyway on project expansion in the Eastern United States.
2025
MNHO begins coordination of NSN. Begins partnership with BirdsCanada, together forming the North American Nightjar Survey.
PARTNERS
The Nightjar Survey Network was on founded upon the principle of power through collective action and would not be possible without the support of our volunteers and partnerships with state, provincial, and federal wildlife managers as well as other nightjar research efforts throughout the world. We thank you all for your support on behalf of nightjars.
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As our efforts expand, we are dedicated to international collaboration and support for nightjar research in understudied regions of the world. To learn more about collaborative international nightjar efforts, visit the Global Nightjar Network.
