Announcing the Chicago Nighthawk Project

cover photo Scott Judd

It wouldn’t be summer in Chicago without the sound of Common Nighthawks in the evening. From stadiums, to local parks, to backyards, these birds have made themselves at home in the city much to the delight of anyone tuned into the night sky. Nighthawks have been devouring insects over Chicagoland and cities across North America for generations but the “common” part of their name may soon become a misnomer.

Common Nighthawks have been seeing notable population declines across their range for some quite some time now. While there are some strong theories as to what is behind this, there is still much we don’t know. This isn’t helped by the fact that the birds themselves remain a mystery in many regards. When the Bird Conservation Network released their latest breeding bird analysis earlier this year, one of the biggest gaps present was data on nighthawks. With no clear data or trends for our region and alarms being sounded nationally, the problem and subsequent call to action was clear.

This summer, Chicago Ornithological Society launched a new volunteer monitoring program to track, study, and conserve the Common Nighthawk. In a few short weeks, the COS team created a unique new monitoring protocol and cobbled together a crack team of about a dozen volunteers to pilot this new program. And just in time for the 2022 breeding season!

While the sample size was small and the protocol will need some adjustments, the results of this pilot season are very promising. Volunteers monitored 48 locations across Chicagoland and detected nighthawks at just over half of them. Over 100 ebird checklists were submitted as part of the program and 76 nighthawk detections were made.

Common Nighthawk parent with fledgling, photograph by Marion Miller

With the short monitoring season now over, the team turns to data analysis and fine tuning of the program. This was the first step of what we hope will be a long-term project to make Chicago a haven for these special creatures. Be on the lookout in spring for updates regarding our return and call for volunteers for the 2023 season. In the meantime, be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for your neighborhood aerial insectivore. If you do encounter one, be sure to submit it to ebird and help set the Chicago Nighthawk Project up for success!

Lastly, we’d like to give a huge shout out to the volunteers who went out this summer to test our pilot program. We couldn’t have done this without you.

Questions about the project, nighthawks, or how you can help? Email us at chicagobirder@gmail.com