Home Range and Foraging Habitat of Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers in Northern Florida

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Home ranges and foraging habitats of 4 clans of red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) were studied monthly on the Apalachicola National Forest (ANF) in northern Florida during 1983. Year-round home ranges, computed by the harmonic mean method, averaged 129 .+-. 31 (SD) ha. Mean home range did not differ among seasons although there was an autumn(Oct-Dec) contraction in size. Woodpeckers foraged almost exclusively in living pines (99%); 77% of foraging occurred in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), which occupied 40% of the home ranges, and 22% occurred in slash pine (P. elliottii), which occupied 35% of the home ranges. Red-cockaded woodpeckers selected pines with mean height > 20 m and mean diameter at breast height (dbh) > 20 cm for foraging. Year-round home range (129 ha) and primary foraging area (82 ha) of red-cockaded woodpeckers in longleaf-slash pine habitat on the ANF were larger than the comparable total range (86.9 ha) and foraging area (50.6 ha) previously reported for longleaf-loblolly pine (P. taeda) habitat on the Francis Marion National Forest (FMNF) in South Carolina. The FMNF data have, to date, constituted the foundation for management of red-cockaded woodpeckers on federal lands in the Southeast; however, the emerging differences in the foraging requirements of the species among different habitats indicate a propriety of evaluating forest management guidelines for this endangered species on a habitat-by-habitat basis.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: