Made famous in folk songs, poems, and literature for their endless chanting on summer nights, Eastern Whip-poor-wills are easy to hear but hard to see. Their brindled plumage blends perfectly with the gray-brown leaf litter of the open forests where they breed and roost. At dawn and dusk, and on moonlit nights, they sally out from perches to sweep up insects in their cavernous mouths. These common birds are on the decline in parts of their range as open forests are converted to suburbs or agriculture.

Habitat	Food	Nesting	Behavior	Conservation
Open Woodland	Insects	Ground	Aerial Forager	Least Concern

Cool Facts

• Eastern Whip-poor-wills lay their eggs in phase with the lunar cycle, so that they hatch on average 10 days before a full moon. When the moon is near full, the adults can forage the entire night and capture large quantities of insects to feed to their nestlings.
• Eastern Whip-poor-will chicks move around as nestlings, making it difficult for predators to rob the nest. The parent may help by shoving a nestling aside with its foot, sometimes sending the young bird tumbling head over heels.
• The male Eastern Whip-poor-will often will investigate intruders near the nest by hovering in place with his body nearly vertical and his tail spread wide, showing off the broad white tips of the tail feathers.
• Eastern and Mexican Whip-poor-wills used to be considered one species, simply called the Whip-poor-will. But in 2011 they were split into two species based on differences in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. Eastern Whip-poor-wills give faster, higher-pitched whip-poor-will calls and have more colorful eggs than their western counterparts.
• The Eastern Whip-poor-will may locate insects by seeing the bugs’ silhouettes against the sky. Its eyes have a reflective structure behind the retina that is probably an adaptation to low light conditions.
• The oldest recorded Eastern Whip-poor-will was at least 4 years old when it was found in Maryland in 1959. It had been banded in the same state.
  

Habitat

Open Woodland

Eastern Whip-poor-wills breed in dry deciduous or evergreen-deciduous forest with little or no underbrush, close to open areas. The forest types they use include pine-oak with juniper, pine plantations, pine flatwoods, northern hardwood forests, low-elevation white pine, oak, aspen, birch, and scrubby woodlands with pitch pine, scrub oak, and hickory. They seem to avoid large tracts of uninterrupted forest with dense canopy. Their migration habitat is similar to their breeding habitat. In winter, Eastern Whip-poor-wills prefer broadleaf tropical or subtropical forest near open areas.

Food

Insects

Eastern Whip-poor-wills feed exclusively on insects, including moths, scarab beetles, click beetles, long-horned grasshoppers, stoneflies, ground beetles, carrion beetles, tiger moths, ants, bees, wasps, fireflies, long-horned beetles, measuringworm moths, owlet moths, weevils, and scavenger beetles. They start foraging 30 minutes after sunset and continue until it gets too dark to see their prey. At first light they resume feeding, stopping about 40 minutes before sunrise. When the moon is bright enough, they may hunt all night long. During cold, rainy weather they will not try to forage. Whip-poor-wills perch in trees (or sometimes on the ground) and make short sallies to snag insects up to 15 feet off the ground, or they may stay out on longer insect-catching flights. Their enormous mouths allow them to swallow insects up to two inches long. They sometimes search rotten logs and leaves for ants, caterpillars, beetles, worms, and other insects.

Ground

The female Eastern Whip-poor-will lays her eggs directly on the leaf litter of the forest floor, usually on the north or northeast side of a small herb, shrub, or seedling that will shade the nest from the hot afternoon sun. Whip-poor-wills occasionally nest on bare ground, sand, or decayed wood. It’s not known whether males or females choose the site.

Aerial Forager

status via IUCN

Least Concern

Eastern Whip-poor-wills are still fairly common birds, but their numbers declined by almost 3% per year between 1966 and 2015, resulting in a cumulative decline of 75% during that time, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. In some areas, parts of their range seem to have become unoccupied. Partners in Flight estimates a global breeding population of 2 million with 95% living part of the year in the U.S., 5% breeding in Canada, and 43% wintering in Mexico. The species rates a 14 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score. Eastern Whip-poor-will is on the 2016 State of North America's Birds' Watch List, which includes bird species that are most at risk of extinction without significant conservation actions to reverse declines and reduce threats. It is also a U.S.-Canada Stewardship species. The main problem Whip-poor-wills face is the loss of open-understory forests. This can come from conversion to crops, pasture, urbanization, or fire suppression leading to dense understories. Some habitat may be being created as abandoned farmland reverts to forest. Because Whip-poor-wills often fly over roads or sit on roadways while foraging, they are also vulnerable to collisions with cars. Precise numbers for this nocturnal species are difficult to obtain through daytime surveys—people can contribute data via the Nightjar Survey Network.