Mass Audubon Whip-poor-will Project 2010

Whip-poor-wills Need Your Help!

Whip-poor-will - photo by Sandy Selesky

The 2010 Whip-poor-will season is upon us! These fascinating night birds are heard less and less frequently across the Commonwealth and we need your help to collect information about their numbers.

We added several new “listening routes” and many new participants during the 2009 season. But many Massachusetts Whip-poor-will may be undetected, and we want to try to find as many of these as we can in 2010.

If you reported Whip-poor-wills to us last year we need you to return to the places you heard birds before and tell us if they're still there. If you haven't yet listened for Whip-poor-wills in your area, please join us in finding out where the species is still holding on. You can send us your reports online or download a data card (PDF 73K).

Using Our Whip-poor-will Locator
We have made it much easier for you to send us your Whip-poor-will reports. Now you only have to sign in once and our new mapping tool lets you enter as many records as you want without signing in again. And you can pinpoint the places where you have heard birds singing without having to give an address or written description. Or if you have several Whip-poor-wills in your area, consider doing a ten mile listening route. Instructions and data forms are found in the How Can I Help? section.

Trolling for Goatsuckers - Help Fill the Holes.
There are many towns in Massachusetts from which Whip-poor-wills have never been officially recorded. And many more from which there are no recent records. In the past this was likely due to an absence of reporters than an absence of Whip-poor-wills, but now that the birds are in decline, it is very important to find out where they still survive - and where they don't. See our list of towns where we have no records and view Whip-poor-will Project Maps. If you live in or near a Whip-less town, we need your help. Drive your local back roads on calm nights with a bright moon, listen for their distinctive calls and then send us a report.