The Canadian population of Common Nighthawk is currently best monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), even though a substantial portion of the breeding range is north of the area well-covered by the BBS, and the survey is not optimal for monitoring crepuscular species, which limits precision of the results to medium. The Canadian Nightjar Survey provides more targeted monitoring of the population, but has not yet been operational long enough to generate meaningful trend insights. Analysis of autonomous recording units operated by the Boreal Bird Monitoring Program and Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute will also provide more insight into the abundance of Common Nighthawks in future years.

The national BBS trend shows two main periods of decline, during the late 1970s and again from the late 1980s until around 2005; since then the population has stabilized at a level roughly two-thirds below that in 1970. Both in British Columbia and the Maritimes, notable declines only began in the early 1990s, but were particularly steep over the following decade. The only region that has not shown a long-term large decrease is the southern Prairies, where numbers have largely fluctuated around 1970s levels but have been steadily climbing since the early 2000s and at this rate would within a few years qualify as a moderate increase since 1970.

The goal for Common Nighthawk is to increase the population to the level it was at in the early 1970s, based on the Breeding Bird Survey. Trend data show that Common Nighthawk is currently below its goal range, but has shown an increase over the past decade. Analysis considering the historical population loss and recent trend suggests that it is unlikely that the goal can be met by 2050, so the interim target is to reach 70% of the goal by 2050. Achieving this target, and ultimately reaching the national goal for this species, will require deliberate conservation action. This is more ambitious than the objectives in the Recovery Strategy for Common Nighthawk under the Species at Risk Act, which calls for halting the decline by 2025 and after that ensuring a positive trend (Environment Canada, 2016).