Who Are You Calling a Goatsucker?

Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)

If you’ve been in the woods at dusk on a warm summer evening in the Carolina countryside, chances are you’ve heard  this fine-feathered friend saying its name.

Eastern Whip-poor-will

Attribution: Photo by Tom Murray.

… or this one…

Chuck-will’s-widow

Attribution: Photo By Tony Castro.

or both of them, over and over. The first, of course, is Eastern Whip-poor-will. The second is Chuck-will’s-widow.  You may even hear the “peent!” call of their cousin, the Common Nighthawk.

All three are part of a subfamily of birds found in many parts of the world known as nightjars, and sometimes called goatsuckers. You might ask “Who are you calling a goatsucker?”. You may also be wondering “Jar? What kind of jar is THAT?”

Common Night Hawk

Common Night Hawk – Attribution: Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

Well, we were wondering the same thing, so we decided that the Carolina Wildlands Foundation should join the Nightjar Survey Network to find out. It turns out, it’s not as complicated as it seems. Nightjar = night (active at night) + jar (the harsh, grating sound some male birds in Europe make when females are sitting on eggs). Goatsucker = a strange tale someone made up long ago about these birds drinking milk from goats.  The truth is, they eat plenty of bloodsucker mosquitoes, plus many types of moths and other flying insects.

Thanks to our dear friend, the late wildlife biologist Tim Ivey, we began participating in a national survey of nightjars in 2019. This year, assisted by Travis Knowles, biology professor at Francis Marion University, we completed our fourth survey at Southern 8ths. Each year we hear Whip-poor-wills, once in awhile a Chuck-will’s-widow will let its presence be known, and we’ve also heard Common Nighthawks in the daytime.

It’s a straightforward, simple survey anyone with a real interest can participate in. All you have to do is set up an account on The Nightjar Survey Network website.

Select a route with 10 stops each 1 mile apart along rural roads, then pick a night in late May or early June when the moon is bright (they are more active then).  Start your survey 30 minutes after sunset and when the moon is up, listen for calls for 6 minutes at each stop, record the number and species on a sheet, then upload your results on the website. Voila!

What a great way to help assess local populations of these enigmatic birds, and to contribute to a national citizen science conservation effort to protect these understudied birds of the night. As ground nesting birds which rely mainly on the camouflage of their feathers to blend in with the forest floor, they need all the help they can get. Much of their open deciduous/pine woodland habitat is being lost to development or being converted to farmland. For Carolina Wildlands Foundation, it’s all part of our ongoing “bioblitz” to develop a baseline of the incredible diversity of flora and fauna, so we can protect and restore the habitat they need to thrive. And, for the record, we’re not calling anyone a goatsucker.