Brittle Bladderfern vs Chuck-will's-widow

Cystopteris tenuis compared with Antrostomus carolinensis

Key Differences

• Brittle Bladderfern is Not Evaluated while Chuck-will's-widow is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Brittle Bladderfern	Chuck-will's-widow
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Tracheophyta	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Polypodiopsida (Polypodiopsida)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Polypodiales (Polypodiales)	Caprimulgiformes (Caprimulgiformes)
Family	Cystopteridaceae	Caprimulgidae
Genus	Cystopteris	Antrostomus
Species	Cystopteris tenuis	Antrostomus carolinensis

Conservation Status

Brittle Bladderfern

NE — Not Evaluated

Chuck-will's-widow

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Brittle Bladderfern	Chuck-will's-widow
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Brittle Bladderfern

Habitat

Typically found in moist, shaded forest floors and tropical canopies.

Range

Distributed across Canada and United States.

Chuck-will's-widow

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Norway, and Venezuela.

Brittle Bladderfern

The Brittle Bladderfern (Cystopteris tenuis) is a species in the genus Cystopteris. Typically found in moist, shaded forest floors and tropical canopies.

Chuck-will's-widow

The Chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) is the largest nightjar in North America, named for its distinctive far-carrying call — a resonant four-syllable whistle repeated persistently on warm nights. It breeds across the southeastern United States, from the Atlantic coastal plain through the Gulf states and up the Mississippi Valley to southern Indiana and Kansas. The species migrates southward in autumn to winter quarters in the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America. Like all nightjars, it is a crepuscular and nocturnal insectivore, capturing large moths, beetles, and other flying insects in flight using its enormous, bristle-fringed gape. By day, the Chuck-will's-widow roosts on the ground or along horizontal branches, relying on cryptic mottled plumage for concealment. It nests directly on the leaf litter of open woodland and scrub, typically in pine-oak forests, dry forests, and woodland edges. The IUCN classifies this species as Least Concern, though Breeding Bird Survey data suggest moderate long-term population declines linked to forest fragmentation and light pollution that disrupts insect prey availability. Conservation of large-scale woodland tracts in the southeastern United States benefits this species and its associated nightjar community.