Georgia's elusive nocturnal bird: conservationists' search for the chuck-will's-widow

Georgians may have never heard of the chuck-will's-widow, but they probably have heard them calling to one another from the treetops on dusky, warm spring evenings.

The elusive and nocturnal chuck-will's-widow is Georgia Audubon's "species of concern" for 2023 to 2025, said an ambassador for the organization's conservation programs. Highlighting the work that can help bird species experiencing population decline in Georgia, the species of concern also offers an opportunity for Georgians to learn more about a native species.

This year's choice is also a challenge: Scientists, conservationists and researchers know next to nothing about the chuck-will's-widow, but they do know their populations are dropping.

What are chucks?

Chuck-will's-widow are a type of nightjar, a family of birds active at night that are recognizable for their brown camouflage, small beaks, long wings and stubby neck and legs. But most notably, they're known for their giant, cavernous mouths.

"I sometimes describe them almost like if you had asked Jim Henson to design a little Muppet dragon," University of Georgia ornithologist Clark Rushing said.

Chucks have a Jabba the Hutt look about them, and Rushing said they are shaped kind of like a child-sized football. They dart around treetops at night hunting insects for food, which classifies them as aerial insectivores.

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"The irony is they're so charismatic, but you rarely ever get to actually encounter them," Rushing said.

Part of why researchers know so little about this bird is that they're simply hard to observe. Unlike other nocturnal birds native to Georgia, like barred owls, the chuck-will's-widow migrates south for much of the year. Moreover, where many owl species vocalize or are somewhat active during the day, chuck-will's-widows are only active at dusk and during the night. They are nearly impossible to find unless they are making their calls.

"If you squint a little bit," Rushing said, they sound like they're saying their name. Their call can be most frequently heard at dusk, especially when the moon is full, but they're easy to confuse with a close relative, the more well-known whip-poor-will.

In Georgia, the chuck-will's-widow is a native summer resident that will begin arriving on the coast in the next few weeks. Throughout the spring they will sweep up the Piedmont, and after nesting and reproducing throughout the summer they will fly south for the winter.

Despite knowing very little, scientists know chucks are declining

Rushing is an assistant professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at UGA, where he and his graduate students focus on studying non-game (hunting) birds. With help from Georgia Audubon, he and his team are returning to coastal Georgia this spring to answer big, fundamental questions about chucks, such as where they go during the winter, what kinds of conditions they prefer for nesting and how many offspring they have.

Although researchers don't know a lot about chucks, they do know there are fewer of them.

There are three ways researchers know this, Rushing said. First, the Breeding Bird Survey — a continental-scale monitoring program that's been conducted since the late 1960s — has indicated a relative decline. In that survey, volunteers drive a set route early in the morning and stop each half mile to count all the birds they see or hear. It isn't the best equipped to detect nightjars, Rushing said, but the survey has been consistently conducted using the same methods over time and can give a decent picture of relative decline.

Surveys tailored specifically for nightjars also indicate a decreasing population.

And lastly, Rushing said that anecdotally people who used to hear chuck-will's-widows don't hear them nearly as much anymore. Rushing's predecessor, Bob Cooper, had nights in Clarke County where he would count 40 or 50 nightjars, but these days Rushing said you'd be lucky to hear one or two on that same route.

Efforts underway to lessen the loss

"Habitat loss is the No. 1 threat to all of our birds and undoubtedly that's affecting chuck-will's-widows, as is insect decline," said Adam Butuel, director of conservation for Georgia Audubon. Picking chucks as the species of concern is a way the organization can educate people about a cool bird native to Georgia, raise awareness about research on it and promote conservation and involvement.

The organization has several programs looking to bolster native plants that foster insect populations as well as habitat preservation, such as the Habitat Stewardship Program, which can aid birds in general, including chuck-will's-widows. This program is designed to help property stewards make improvements to their land to benefit native wildlife while connecting them to educational resources, technical assistance programs, cost-sharing and revenue-generating programs as well as engagement and research opportunities.

Butuel said Georgia Audubon is also hoping to drum up support for the Nightjar Survey Network, a national program run by the College of William & Mary, where volunteers can pick routes and monitor birds like chuck-will's-widows in their area. Another easy way Georgians can contribute data is by using the program eBird to submit sightings of chuck-will's-widows.

On the ground, waiting for return

This spring, graduate student Natalie Ramos is gearing up to return a second spring and summer season to Little St. Simons to find and tag chuck-will's-widows.

GPS tagging chucks is relatively new. Only recently have tags lightweight enough to not hinder chuck-will's-widows' flight been accessible to researchers, and even then Ramos said they are limited to VHF (very high frequency) tags. These don't transmit real-time location data, but instead do a type of tracking that records location data onto the tag and can be picked up by the researcher's equipment if they are in close proximity to the bird.

If the bird doesn't come back, their whereabouts during migration remain a mystery.

"We only tagged six (last year), but we're really hoping that at least one or two come back," Ramos said. They've taken bets on where they think the chucks have gone. Some say Costa Rica, others Cuba. She's on the ground floor for this new, baseline information on chuck's whereabouts that scientists have never known before.

Even if last summer's tagged chucks don't return, there's other work Ramos is looking forward to during the upcoming nights in coastal Georgia. She, Rushing and their fellow researchers will be surveying, banding and tagging chuck-will's-widows, locating nests and hopefully learning more about how chucks rear their young. They'll also be setting up traps to study the insects in the area to better understand chuck-will's-widows' food intake.

"They're the best part of the night," Ramos said.

Marisa Mecke is an environmental journalist. She can be reached at 912-328-4411 or at mmecke@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia conservationists search for declining the chuck-will's-widow