During their courtship displays, male Common Nighthawks dive steeply towards the ground, then abruptly pull up, creating a distinctive booming sound by the air rushing through their wing feathers
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Common Nighthawk
The Common Nighthawk breeds in a variety of open and semi-open landscapes from British Columbia to the Maritimes, and winters across much of South America. Abundance of this species is quite uncertain, but the best current estimate is approximately 5.3 million individuals in Canada, representing 23% of the global population and a moderate degree of responsibility for Canada. Roughly another 300,000 individuals breeding in Alaska pass through Canada on migration, slightly increasing the total proportion to 24%.
Common Nighthawk was assessed as Threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in 2007 based on rapid population decline over the previous decade (COSEWIC, 2007), and was reassessed as Special Concern in 2018 to reflect that the rate of decline had lessened (COSEWIC, 2018), but the species remained in need of conservation attention. It is currently listed as Special Concern under the Species at Risk Act. The Breeding Bird Survey indicates a large decrease in the population relative to 1970. Confidence in this assessment is medium because of limitations in survey coverage. The national population of Common Nighthawk is below its goal range.
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).
| Designation | Geographic Area | Status | CITATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| COSEWIC | Canada | Special Concern | |
| IUCN | Global | Least Concern | |
| Species At Risk Act | Canada | Special Concern | |
| Partners in Flight | Western Hemisphere | Common Birds in Steep Decline | |
| Wild Species | Canada | Apparently secure |
- COSEWIC. 2007c. COSEWIC Assessment and Status Report on the Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. vi + 25 pp. https://wildlife-species.canada.ca/species-risk-registry/document/default_e.cfm?documentID=1393.
- COSEWIC. 2018. Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor): COSEWIC assessment and status report 2018. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/common-nighthawk-2018.html.
- Environment Canada. 2016c. Recovery Strategy for the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) in Canada. Species at Risk Act Recovery Strategy Series. Environment Canada, Ottawa. vii + 49 pp. https://wildlife-species.canada.ca/species-risk-registry/document/default_e.cfm?documentID=2728.
During their courtship displays, male Common Nighthawks dive steeply towards the ground, then abruptly pull up, creating a distinctive booming sound by the air rushing through their wing feathers
Common Nighthawk is primarily reported between May and September in Canada, as it migrates south in the nonbreeding season.