For a brief overview of nocturnal atlasing, see Part I.
Index to our Nocturnal Atlasing series:
IV – More Wisconsin Night Sounds
Night birding is unique, and many birders really enjoy it; being out at night reveals a magical world of animals that you may never meet during daytime visits to a location. But many folks told us that they need more guidance and tips about night atlasing, which led to this second part in our Guide to Nocturnal Atlasing series.
Although Part 1 provided a broad overview, this installment goes deeper in outlining everything you need to know about the how, when, and where to help you have safe and productive night expeditions. Nocturnal effort for the Atlas is lagging a bit so far, but with your help we can get to where we need to be, all while having fun and perhaps adding some new birds along the way!
Which blocks need night effort?
Here’s a static map as of early 2019, showing what we have left:
For a live map showing which blocks need night effort, use the Atlas Effort Map, and choose Nocturnal from the dropdown:
Within a county, we recommend using the Explore a Region tool to pull up a county- level list of blocks that need effort. Simply enter the county here: https://ebird.org/ebird/atlaswi/places and then click the ”Blocks” tab, and the word “Priority”. The Noct Hr column shows you how many night hours are in the block. Clicking Noct Hr sorts the table by this column. If you need to see where the block boundaries are, consult the interactive map.
If you are a person who really loves to bird at night, email a County Coordinator and let them know! We have a number of blocks where people aren’t able to get out for some reason, and your ability to do a few night surveys will be very valuable to help us fill gaps in nocturnal effort. Often, you can even visit multiple nearby priority blocks in a single night.
Understanding how to enter night visits in eBird
There are several different ways you could enter your night visit.
If you did a series of stationary counts, the preferred way would be to enter these as precisely plotted 5 or 10 minute counts, with the Stationary protocol.
But if you did four 10-minute counts on a 1.5 mile stretch of road, it would also be acceptable to enter that as a single 40 minute, 1.5 mile, Traveling protocol checklist (or Traveling – Property Specific if you stayed within a single property boundary).
What NOT to do:
- Don’t enter all your effort at the block center, or as a 10-mile traveling checklist. More precise locations are much more useful. Even if you drove all over your block, find some way to break it up into a couple different meaningful locations.
- Don’t use the Incidental protocol, or you won’t get any credit for your night hours.
- Don’t use an incomplete checklist, or you won’t get any credit for your night hours.
eBird keeps track of night hours tallied for a block separately. Checklists marked nocturnal will have this icon pop up after you enter the start time on the Date and Effort step of submitting observations:
When submitting nocturnal data, you should look for this icon to appear after you have entered the start time of your checklist on the Date and Effort page. That is because eBird marks the entire checklist either as night effort or as day effort based on the start time.
If you started at 3 AM and birded for 10 hours, it would call those 10 hours of night effort because the start time is at night. The solution to this is simple: if you birded through dusk or dawn, break it into two checklists. The cutoff for a nocturnal checklist in eBird is 40 minutes before sunrise and 20 minutes after sunset. You can look up your local sunrise and sunset for any date here.
In reality, depending upon the area you covered, you’d likely want to split a 10-hour checklist into more than two segments anyway, but the graphic above serves to illustrate where the breaking point is.
What if you spent an hour in a block specifically trying to find night birds and detected 0 birds of any species? This actually happens on a regular basis, so don’t feel too bad. If you went out at night and detected no birds at all, you should enter that effort by submitting a blank checklist. Go through the process to submit a checklist just like normal and when the species list comes up, just submit it without entering anything. It is also helpful to add some comments to the checklist to denote that this isn’t an error. Enter “yes” that you are reporting all species you have detected. Then this checklist will count towards your nocturnal hours for the block. Note: if you are submitting a checklist with 0 or 1 species on it and claiming that you are reporting all species, it will ping you with this box to double-check, and then you’ll have to select “confirm” and “submit” again.
How much night effort does a block need?
You can refer to page 20 of the Atlas Handbook to see the block completion critera, and find the following guidance:
- At least 2 night visits have occurred. Species like owls and nightjars are rarely detected on daytime visits, so night visits are required to have a better chance of finding these species.
But what does that really mean? In general, we’re looking for about 2 hours of night effort in a block. Ideally this will be in an early window for owls and woodcocks, and then a later window for marshbirds and nightjars.
What time of year is best for atlasing at night?
If you’ve seen our Breeding Guideline Bar Chart, you know that the breeding timing can vary quite a bit among species. But we’ll make it easy for you — the requirement for nocturnal atlasing in your block can be fulfilled with as little as two 1-hour visits — one in an early window (April – early May) and one in a later window (late May – mid-June).
The first visit in April-early May is primarily for owls, Am. Woodcock, and winnowing snipe. This should be a prime window for Barred, N. Saw-whet, and E. Screech Owl. Great Horned Owls will be on eggs or have young by now but will still be detected. Remember to refer to the Breeding Guideline Bar Chart — there are a few species you might encounter in this first window which may still be in migration. Great Horned Owl juveniles can be heard during this window — do not confuse their raspy vocalizations with Barn Owls (which are extremely rare in WI). Long-eared, Short-eared, and even N. Saw-whet owls would benefit from repeat visits during this window to make sure they aren’t migrants. American Bitterns and Wilson’s Snipe are migrating during this window, but if they are calling or winnowing from suitable habitat, that suggests they are on territory. However, any rails heard during this first window are likely too early to code.
The second visit in late May–mid-June should focus on bitterns, rails, nightjars, owls, and even a few species of secretive grassland sparrow which may be more detectable at night. With exception of Common Nighthawk, pretty much everything you see in this second window should be on its breeding territory by now. C. Nighthawks are late migrants into early June and require caution if outside the sand barrens and urbanized areas most common for nesting. Some of the owls that were more detectable during the first window won’t be calling as much, especially N. Saw-whet and Long-eared Owl.
Of course, we don’t want to deter you from visiting your block at night during other times of year. Great Horned Owls will be hooting in February, July can be a productive month for detecting the raspy calls of juvenile owls, and E. Whip-poor-wills can still call at dusk into early August, so there are plenty of opportunities if you can’t fit your surveys into these windows — but these two times of year offer your best chance at productive surveys for a suite of species.
What time to atlas at night?
Before you even decide to go out, consider the weather. Calm nights with no precipitation are best — the calmer the better, generally, but at least less than 10 mph sustained winds. It isn’t worth your time to go out on a windy night, so if you can wait for a nice night and it will likely be more productive, and you’ll enjoy it more. Also avoid fog, for safety concerns.
There are 3 main ways to do it:
The Dusk Visit
This is probably the most common. Head out just before dusk and hit a number of locations, some at dusk, and some when it is completely dark (don’t forget to keep separate checklists divided at 20 minutes after sunset). Actually, regular atlasing for diurnal birds can be productive in the hour or two before dusk, especially during warmer days. This option also generally involves you getting back to bed at a decent hour too.
The Morning Visit
While this option may require you to set an early alarm, it can be the most rewarding. Head out early and get an hour or two of night atlasing before the sun is up. There are several advantages to this method: usually fewer people are on the roads, you’ll often be treated to a wonderful sunrise, and you’ll get to hear the dawn chorus. You can pretty easily pair up this type of night visit with some fantastic early day atlasing where birds are singing and very active.
The Insomniac’s Special
You know… nothing’s really stopping you from birding all night long. As people who run Big Days will tell you, you can actually find a fair number of birds making noises from 10 pm to 3 am. If you’re feeling ambitious or can’t sleep, night birds are detectable all night long.
How to atlas at night
The simplest and most common way to atlas at night is just to run a road route where you get out in safe, quiet locations to periodically stand and listen. Listen in one place for 5–10 minutes, then drive a half mile down the road and do it again.
Alternately, depending on the situation, you could walk a segment of road or trail at night, periodically stopping to listen. If you do it this way, make sure you have a flashlight available, and it helps to be familiar with the route. We do not suggest walking off-trail at night.
If you are concerned about being able to find safe and quiet places to listen, scout the block during daytime. Promising roads for night birding include secondary roads or dirt roads where you do not anticipate much traffic. Make sure parking spots have good shoulders or good visibility where cars coming behind you can see you parked there. Avoid parking directly in front of someone’s house. Avoid major roads or factories, as just a little noise can be surprisingly disruptive at night. Some blocks will not have ideal locations, and you’ll have to do the best you can, but please, never survey in a location that makes you feel unsafe.
Try to sample a variety of habitats, especially marshes, grasslands, and woodlands if your block has them. If your block seems fairly boring — you might be surprised! — Am. Woodcocks, Great Horned Owls, Eastern Screech-owls, Common Nighthawks and more can persist in surprisingly suburban landscapes.
If it’s a nice night, and you’ve got the energy, you can actually survey multiple priority/specialty blocks in a single night. Whenever you head out for a night visit, you should check the tables in eBird to look at night coverage for other blocks and to pick a backup block or two in case things are going well and you want to try a few more spots.
In most cases you won’t confirm species detected during a night survey. That’s okay, and we are mindful that most nocturnal species are harder to detect. There’s no way around that, so we will have to be satisfied with atlas maps featuring mostly probable and possible codes for nocturnal species. However, some species, especially relatively common and noisy young of Great Horned Owl and Barred Owl can be heard and confirmed as FL at night. Part III will feature a guide to these calls.
Use of Audio Playback
Audio playback can be useful for detecting birds, but may also have negative effects on birds. Specifically, it can cause birds to expend energy defending their territory against a phantom intruder. Because we are seeking breeding birds during the time of year when they are defending their territory and tending to their mate or young, playback has the potential to be more disruptive than for migrant or wintering birds. Audio playback can be detrimental to the health and breeding productivity of birds. We do not condone playback for most general atlasing purposes and playback is strongly discouraged for any non-scientific use, i.e., bringing the bird closer for you to see or photograph.
However, if used intelligently and with appropriate restraint, playback can increase detections of certain species. For our purposes you could consider playback for the following species in appropriate habitat: E. Screech-Owl, N. Saw-whet Owl, Long-eared Owl, Yellow Rail, Sora, Virginia Rail, King Rail, and Least Bittern. Barred Owls may or may not respond to playback, but they are thankfully quite detectable anyway. We do not recommend playback for Great Horned Owls, as they are a major predator, including of other owl species! Related to this, always do owl playback last and in order of smallest to largest species. Part III will have more details on particular calls and habitats for these species.
If playback is used, do so sparingly by limiting the length and frequency of use (e.g. ≤30 second intervals no more than twice in a given location), and with caution by avoiding repeatedly birded areas where cumulative effects of multiple playback users can be severe. If a species responds, cease further playback immediately. Never use playback for threatened or endangered species, or on properties specifically restricting its use (e.g., National Wildlife Refuges).
Barriers to atlasing at night
During our surveys, we heard a variety of reasons why people hadn’t yet ventured out at night. Here we attempt to debunk some of them. If you’re on the fence, we really want to encourage you to give this a shot, at least once — it’s fun!
I don’t want to stay up all night.
You don’t have to! 1–2 hours after sunset or before sunrise is generally sufficient for a visit. You’re often up for 2 hours after sunset anyway, right?
I don’t like being out alone at night.
Buddy up! Convince a friend (even a non-birding friend or significant other) to tag along, or pair up with another atlaser and visit both your block and their block in the same outing.
I will get eaten by bears/wolves/coyotes.
No, you won’t. In most cases you’ll only be steps from the car anyway. If the night freaks you out, partner up, and then you’ll enjoy it more. Or bring a large flashlight and grip it tightly, that works too.
I’m worried people will think I’m suspicious.
In most cases, this worry is overblown — last year our point count crew stopped and stood at over 4,000 random locations across the state, often in pre-dawn hours, and looking fairly suspicious (you should see these people), but we were rarely questioned. Plenty of people go for neighborhood walks after dark. Nevertheless, situations can vary and in some areas of the state, this may be a concern. If you have a particularlyrough-looking block, it is worth some scouting beforehand to find places to survey where you feel safe. Some additional tips to mitigate this concern:
- Atlas in pairs or a group.
- Don’t park directly in front of someone’s house.
- Carry our Atlas Flyer for Public Interactions that you can show someone if they ask what you are doing.
- Put this Atlas Vehicle Sign or Magnet on your vehicle to let people know you are surveying.
The mosquitoes will eat me alive.
When the bugs are bad, we recommend bringing a headnet and gloves. Since often you aren’t trying to actually see anything, mostly listen, a headnet can actually be less irritating to wear at night. Sometimes if the mosquitoes get really bad even with a headnet, taking a few steps to the left or right to get away from your personal mosquito cloud can help you listen. And if they build up in the car, let the windows down as you drive to your next location. Being out on cooler or slightly breezy nights can help if this is a major issue in your habitat.
Field Trips
Although our schedule isn’t ready yet, stay tuned for many opportunities to attend a night atlasing trip in your area in 2017. These will be opportunities to go out in a group, with experts, to show you the ropes, and hopefully hear or see some fun birds!
Part 3 of our Guide to Nocturnal Atlasing will be coming soon featuring detailed species tips and audio clips.