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Increasing attention is paid to the effects of human activities, including the use of aircraft, on wildlife. However, responses to visual and auditory stimuli associated with aircraft are highly species- and context-dependent and results of existing studies should not be generalized across species, or even across life stages of the same species. We used digital audio recorders, auto-triggered cameras, and heart rate monitors to study the responses of nesting Wilson's plovers (Charadrius wilsonia) to different types of planes (civilian and military fixed-wing aircraft) and helicopters (civilian and military rotary-wing aircraft) at Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina. We compared vigilance behavior, incubation rate, and heart rate before, during, and after overflights. Wilson's plovers were alert and scanned more during military rotary-wing overflights, and scanned more during both military and civilian fixed-wing overflights than during periods without overflights. Heart rates and incubation rates did not change during any type of overflights. Although we found no direct link between increased vigilance rates and decreased reproductive success, a substantial increase in aircraft traffic at our study site, especially rotary-wing overflights, would merit further investigation. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.

Because of the variability in the types of human activities to which animals are exposed and the associated responses by different species, there is a lack of consensus on the effects of humans on wildlife behavior. We studied the effects of military air traffic, all-terrain vehicles, off-road vehicles, and pedestrians on the nesting behaviors of least terns (Sternula antillarum), common terns (Sterna hirundo), gull-billed terns (Gelochelidon nilotica), and black skimmers (Rynchops niger) at North Core Banks, Cape Lookout National Seashore (CALO), North Carolina. We deployed digital audio recorders and time-lapse cameras within 9 colonies from May to August 2010–2011 and sampled nesting behaviors before, during, and after human activities. There was no evidence that military or civilian aircraft adversely affected incubation behavior for any of the focal species. The mean incubation rate by least terns was less during pedestrian events than control periods (91% vs. 79%, S = −2.2, P = 0.04). The current patterns of aircraft operations are unlikely to affect colonial waterbird demographics. Current beach management policies restricting human activity to >50 m from colony boundaries mitigated adverse impacts to nesting colonial waterbirds. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.