Button Dodder vs Chotacabras de la Carolina

Cuscuta cephalanthi compared with Antrostomus carolinensis

Key Differences

Button Dodder is Not Evaluated while Chotacabras de la Carolina is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Button Dodder	Chotacabras de la Carolina
Kingdom	Plantae (planta)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Chordata (cordados)
Class	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Solanales (Solanales)	Caprimulgiformes (Caprimulgiformes)
Family	Convolvulaceae	Caprimulgidae
Genus	Cuscuta	Antrostomus
Species	Cuscuta cephalanthi	Antrostomus carolinensis

Conservation Status

Button Dodder

NE — Not Evaluated

Chotacabras de la Carolina

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Button Dodder	Chotacabras de la Carolina
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Button Dodder

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Range

Distributed across Canada and United States.

Chotacabras de la Carolina

Habitat

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

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Norway, and Venezuela.

Button Dodder

The Button Dodder (Cuscuta cephalanthi) is a species in the genus Cuscuta. Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

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.