Bird
Chuck-will's-widow
Caprimulgus carolinensis
Lives in Florida all year and nests here. Found in all 67 counties, across 14 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 67 counties
- Habitats
- 14

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 67 counties
- Habitats
- 14
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Florida 14
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.



Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Forests and open woodlands on dry ridges and slopes, often oak or pine.
Evergreen scrub oaks, sand pine and rosemary on deep, white, drought-prone sand ridges, burned rarely but intensely; distinct from the longleaf and turkey oak sandhills.
Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.
Forests on moist but not wet ground, such as rich slopes and ravines.
Flat, sandy Coastal Plain pine woodlands, wetter than sandhills and denser than savannas.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Dry, deep-sand ridges with longleaf pine and turkey oak, kept open by fire.
Tree plantations and managed pine
Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
Other habitats in its models (79)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.
- Developed, Low Intensity Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Limestone Forest Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Plain Oak-Hickory Upland - Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest-Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Plain Oak-Hickory Upland - Juniper Modifier Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer.
- Ridge and Valley Calcareous Valley Bottom Glade and Woodland Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Summer.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Oak Forest - Xeric Summer and winter.
- Ozark-Ouachita Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Winter.
- Southern Interior Low Plateau Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest Summer.
- Crosstimbers Oak Forest and Woodland Winter.
- Southern Appalachian Northern Hardwood Forest Winter.
- Ouachita Montane Oak Forest Winter.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Oak Forest Summer and winter.
- Allegheny-Cumberland Dry Oak Forest and Woodland - Hardwood Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Bluff Forest Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Loess Bluff Forest Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Dry and Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Summer.
- Mississippi River Alluvial Plain Dry-Mesic Loess Slope Forest Winter.
- South Florida Pine Rockland Summer and winter.
- Ozark-Ouachita Dry Oak Woodland Summer and winter.
- Lower Mississippi River Dune Woodland and Forest Winter.
- Southern Piedmont Mesic Forest Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Mesic Hardwood Forest Summer.
- Ozark-Ouachita Mesic Hardwood Forest Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Hardwood Modifier Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Woodland Modifier Summer.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Virginia/Pitch Pine Modifier Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Loblolly Pine Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest - Offsite Pine Modifier Summer.
- Allegheny-Cumberland Dry Oak Forest and Woodland - Pine Modifier Summer.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest - Pine modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-Heath Forest - Mixed Modifier Summer and winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dry Hardwood Forest Summer.
- Southeastern Interior Longleaf Pine Woodland Summer.
- Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest and Woodland Summer and winter.
- Central Appalachian Oak and Pine Forest Summer and winter.
- Appalachian Hemlock-Hardwood Forest Winter.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest Summer.
- Central Appalachian Pine-Oak Rocky Woodland Summer.
- Southern and Central Appalachian Cove Forest Summer and winter.
- South-Central Interior Mesophytic Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood and Mixed Forest Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-Line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland Summer and winter.
- Southern Appalachian Low Mountain Pine Forest Summer.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Summer.
- Southern Piedmont Glade and Barrens Summer and winter.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Summer.
- Cumberland Sandstone Glade and Barrens Summer.
- Central Appalachian Alkaline Glade and Woodland Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer.
- Eastern Highland Rim Prairie and Barrens - Dry Modifier Summer.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Summer.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Summer.
- Recently Logged Areas Summer and winter.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Forest Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Grassland Summer and winter.
- Recently Burned Shrubland Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Shrub Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Summer and winter.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland and Forbland Summer and winter.
- South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Summer.
Seasons in Florida
- Year-round: nests here, in 19 of 67 counties.
- Summer: nests here, in 55 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 653
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Florida. Shared habitat, not food.
- Brickellia cordifoliaBrickellia cordifolia
- Long Key LocustberryByrsonima lucida
- Many-flowered Grass-pinkCalopogon multiflorus
- Trumpet-creeperCampsis radicans
- Wild OliveCartrema americanum
- SugarberryCeltis laevigata
- Longleaf SpikegrassChasmanthium sessiliflorum
- Coco PlumChrysobalanus icaco
- Woody GoldenrodChrysoma pauciflosculosa
- Godfrey's Golden AsterChrysopsis godfreyi
- Yellow ThistleCirsium horridulum
- Spurge-nettleCnidoscolus stimulosus
- Flowering DogwoodCornus florida
- Pineland CrotonCroton linearis
- Dalbergia ecastaphyllumDalbergia ecastaphyllum
- American PersimmonDiospyros virginiana
- White StopperEugenia axillaris
- Telephus SpurgeEuphorbia telephioides
- American BeechFagus grandifolia
- Carolina JessamineGelsemium sempervirens
- BeeftreeGuapira discolor
- American Witch-hazelHamamelis virginiana
- PoorjoeHexasepalum teres
- Mangrove SpiderlilyHymenocallis latifolia
Wildlife 286
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Florida. Not sighting records.
- American CrowCorvus brachyrhynchos
- Cooper's HawkAccipiter cooperii
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Red-tailed HawkButeo jamaicensis
- Red-winged BlackbirdAgelaius phoeniceus
- Turkey VultureCathartes aura
- Yellow-breasted ChatIcteria virens
- American GoldfinchCarduelis tristis
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Chipping SparrowSpizella passerina
- Common GrackleQuiscalus quiscula
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Eastern Screech-owlMegascops asio
- Eastern TowheePipilo erythrophthalmus
- European StarlingSturnus vulgaris
- Mourning DoveZenaida macroura
- Northern CardinalCardinalis cardinalis
- Northern FlickerColaptes auratus
- Northern MockingbirdMimus polyglottos
- Sharp-shinned HawkAccipiter striatus
- American RobinTurdus migratorius
- Eurasian Collared-doveStreptopelia decaocto
- Great Crested FlycatcherMyiarchus crinitus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Chuck-will's-widow
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)





































