February Program: Common Poorwill nightly activity

How do scientists learn what nocturnal birds are doing at night? They are difficult to see, might be dangerous for the observer to track and follow, and getting too close might disturb normal activity. Vocalizations like hoots are biased towards males and may only be useful at certain times in the breeding season.

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System- and the use of “nanotags”- is most often applied to studying long-distance movements of small organisms. But we can also use data gathered from these tags to understand small-scale animal movements, like when they are active or sitting still. Data like these can help us understand the relationships between nocturnal creatures and many factors, including moonlight, weather, and food availability. We can also look at seasonal differences in movements, or how activity changes at different stages of the breeding cycle.

The Bitterroot Valley boasts the only long-term study on the uncommon nightjar the Common Poorwill. Since 2015, we have captured over 250 poorwills on the MPG Ranch near Florence. We’ve spent the last few field seasons deploying nanotags on poorwills and other nocturnal creatures to understand nightly activity patterns. In this talk, we’ll share what we’ve learned so far. How much of the night are poorwills active? Do males and females show different activity patterns? Can we tease out how much time poorwills spend foraging versus singing? Though poorwills will be the focus of this talk, we’ll also look at the activity of several other elusive night creatures, like the Common Nighthawk and Flammulated Owl.

Please join Bitterroot Bird Alliance for this VIRTUAL program on Monday, February 16^th at 7 pm. You will need to register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/_4JzAH-ARgi1BxZ8sZkW_A

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.