Fauna using nest boxes in four timber types in eastern Texas
Abstract
Occupancy of 240 nest boxes in pure pine, pine-hardwood, upland hardwood, and bottomland hardwood forests (60 boxes in each forest type) were monitored for six years on the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest, Nacogdoches County in eastern Texas. Three boxes were placed at twenty sites in each forest type. Initially, each site had a box with 3.2, 4.7, or 5.7 cm diameter entrance, but squirrels and woodpeckers enlarged entrances and altered diameters over time. A wide variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods used the nest boxes. Spiders and wasps used nest boxes more than any other faunal group. Tufted Titmice (Purus bicolor), Eastern Screech Owls (Otus asio), and Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) were the only birds that we observed using nest boxes.