Eastern whip-poor-will

Whip-poor-wills eat insects that fly at night.

They catch moths and beetles in their wide mouths.

Whip-poor-wills hunt at dusk, at dawn and on moonlit nights. A bird flies out from a perch in a tree to catch insects, or flies low along the edges of woods and clearings. It catches insects in its broad, gaping mouth and swallows them whole.

Its food is night-flying insects, especially moths and beetles, plus mosquitoes and many others. Canada's recovery plan says large moths and scarab beetles are its main prey.

Audubon lists night-flying insects, especially moths, beetles and mosquitoes; Canada's 2018 recovery strategy says prey is mainly large moths, scarab beetles and other nocturnal flying insects, caught by sallying short distances from perches or picked directly from the ground. The IUCN notes feeding at dawn and dusk and during moonlit times of the night, usually by sallying after prey (Cink et al. 2017). Audubon adds low, continuous flights along the edges of woods and clearings, and insects taken in the broad, gaping mouth and swallowed whole.

The recovery strategy names reduced availability of insect prey among the main threats in Canada, and the IUCN mentions untested theories that industrial pollution and pesticide use could be reducing prey.

By day, the whip-poor-will sleeps on the ground or on a branch.

At night, it sings whip-poor-will again and again!

Whip-poor-wills rest during the day and become active at dusk. By day a bird sleeps on the forest floor or on a log or branch that lies flat, and its mottled feathers help it blend in. Because it is active at night and rests by day, people hear it much more often than they see it.

On summer nights the male sings his name, whip-poor-will, over and over to defend his patch and attract a mate. They sing most on bright, moonlit nights. Audubon tells of one patient listener who counted 1,088 calls in a row without a break. To keep predators away from the nest, an adult may pretend to be hurt and lead them away.

Audubon's guide says the bird sleeps by day on the forest floor or on a horizontal log or branch, and that males sing at night to defend territory and attract a mate; courtship is not well known, but the male approaches the female on the ground with much head bobbing, bowing and sidling. One observer counted 1,088 whip-poor-wills given rapidly without a break. Ontario's species-at-risk page says the species is most vocal on bright, moonlit nights and that adults fake injuries to lead predators away from the nest.

It is a full migrant (IUCN). Audubon says many winter in the southeastern United States and others migrate to Central America, with few in the West Indies; the IUCN lists Belize and Bermuda as passage areas.

Listen to the sound at the start of this page.

It is a real whip-poor-will singing just after dark.

At the start of this page you can play a real recording of an eastern whip-poor-will. Jonathon Jongsma recorded it just after dark on 8 June 2012, singing from woods beside a wet meadow at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota. He heard the bird but did not see it.

Listen for the loud, rhythmic "whip-poor-will," repeated over and over, that Audubon describes.

The recording on this page (xeno-canto XC103418, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) was made by Jonathon Jongsma at 21:30 on 8 June 2012 at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Anoka County, Minnesota, at about 280 meters: natural song from an unseen bird just after dark, singing from a wooded area bordering a wet meadow, identified by voice and location, with no playback used.

Audubon describes the song as a loud, rhythmic whip-poor-will repeated over and over at night; Canada's recovery strategy writes the three notes as "WHIP-poor-WEEL."

There are fewer whip-poor-wills than before.

They need woods with open spaces.

People are working to help them.

The eastern whip-poor-will is listed as near threatened because its numbers have fallen moderately fast. Forest is being lost to farms and towns, and some open patches where it nests are growing into thick forest. Roads are a danger too, because the birds sit at the side of roads and can be hit by cars.

In Canada it was listed as threatened in 2011, and Ontario still lists it as threatened. Canada's 2018 recovery plan estimated about 120,000 whip-poor-wills there, and Ontario protects the bird and its habitat by law. The IUCN suggests thinning forests, keeping shrubby areas and perhaps controlled burns to make good nesting places.

BirdLife International assessed Antrostomus vociferus as Near Threatened (A2abc) for the IUCN Red List (assessed 12 June 2019, published 2021) because of a moderately rapid decline over the past three generations (generation length 4.1 years); Partners in Flight (2020) estimated 1,800,000 mature individuals. The IUCN names forest loss and degradation as the predominant threat: Tracewski et al. (2016) estimated forest loss of about 5.3% across three generations in the range, predominantly to agriculture, with pressure from grazing and urbanization. Succession of open habitats to dense forest also removes nesting places, and birds at roadsides risk traffic collisions. Proposed actions include research and forest thinning, shrubland maintenance and possibly prescribed burns (Hunt 2013).

COSEWIC designated the species Threatened in Canada in April 2009, and it was listed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act in April 2011. Canada's 2018 recovery strategy estimated 120,000 individuals in Canada (about 6% of the global population, an estimate of low reliability) and a Canada-wide Breeding Bird Survey decline of 3.19% a year over 1970 to 2012, an approximate loss of 75% of the population (Environment Canada 2014a). Ontario's species-at-risk page lists it as Threatened in the province (added 10 September 2009).