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Use of external nesting boxes by roosting red-cockaded woodpeckers

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) roost year-round in cavities they excavate in living pine trees. Cavity excavation is a lengthy process (Conner and Rudolph 1995a) and sometimes a member of a family group does not have an available cavity for roosting within its resident cluster of cavity trees. Woodpeckers without a cavity either roost in a scar or fork of a live pine tree within their cluster, or they fly daily to another territory to roost in a cluster with a vacant cavity (Hooper and Lennartz 1983, Hooper 1983).

Keywords

Artificial cavities, external nest boxes, red-cockaded woodpecker

Citation

Taylor, William E.; Hooper, Robert G. 2004. Use of external nesting boxes by roosting red-cockaded woodpeckers. In: Costa, Ralph; Daniels, Susan J., eds. Red-cockaded woodpecker: Road to recovery. Blaine, WA: Hancock House Publishers: 506-507.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/20524