• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Antrostomus vociferus (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) was previously placed in the genus Caprimulgus. Caprimulgus vociferus (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was previously split into C. vociferus and C. arizonae following AOU (2010).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Near Threatened	A2abc
2018	Near Threatened	A2ac+3c+4ac
2016	Least Concern
2013	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2011	Least Concern
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	high
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	5,180,000 km2
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	3,350,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	1800000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2019
Population trend	stable	-	estimated	-
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	10-29%	-	-	-
Generation length	4.1 years	-	-	-

Population justification: Partners in Flight (2020) estimate the population size to be 1,800,000 mature individuals.

Trend justification: Partners in Flight (2020) estimate annual rates of decline of ~2.7% between 1970 and 2017, equable to a ~28% decline across three generations (12.3 years). Christmas Bird Count data for 1966-2019 also shows an annual decline throughout the USA of 2.31% (1.30-3.39%), equating to a reduction of 25% (15-35%) over three generations (Meehan et al. 2018), while Canadian Breeding Bird Survey data suggests an annual decline of 3%, or 31% across three generations (Mills 2018).
Short-term trend data however suggests that the rate of population decline has been decreasing in recent years (Meehan et al. 2018; Pardieck et al. 2018). Data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) shows an estimated annual decrease of 0.94% for the three generations prior to 2019 (Pardieck et al. 2018), which equates to a decline of 11% over the past three generations. This value is however non-significant, with the 95%-confidence interval ranging from -2.40 to 0.61 (26% decrease to 8% increase over the past three generations). Given this uncertainty and under the assumption that declines are consistent across the range, the overall rate of past decline is here placed in the band 10-29% over the last three generations.
From 2010 on, year-by-year records from BBS on show stable or slowly increasing population trends (Pardieck et al. 2018). Again assuming that trends are consistent across the entire range, the population is currently assessed as stable.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Belize	extant	native				yes
Bermuda (to UK)	extant	native				yes
Canada	extant	native		yes
Costa Rica	extant	native			yes
Cuba	extant	native			yes
El Salvador	extant	native			yes
Guatemala	extant	native			yes
Honduras	extant	native			yes
Jamaica	extant	vagrant
Mexico	extant	native			yes
Nicaragua	extant	native			yes
Panama	extant	native			yes
St Pierre and Miquelon (to France)	extant	vagrant				yes
USA	extant	native		yes	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	major	non-breeding
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	breeding
Forest	Temperate	major	breeding
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	breeding
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	suitable	breeding
Altitude	0 - 3100 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Scale Unknown/Unrecorded	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Natural system modifications	Other ecosystem modifications	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Competition
Residential & commercial development	Housing & urban areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Transportation & service corridors	Roads & railroads	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Species mortality

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Eastern Whip-poor-will Antrostomus vociferus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/eastern-whip-poor-will-antrostomus-vociferus on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.