Objective: Determine breeding habitat, distribution, nest site selection, territory sizes and gather any behavioral data.
Breeding biology of the Southern Appalachian Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
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- Point count survey
- Point count with callback recordings
- Opportunistic sightings
- Nest monitoring
- Transect
Results summary:
- nests found from 3m to 20m high, but mostly below 15m; snag dbh’s were 25-35 cm; clutch size in 2004 was 6, for nearly 50 nests (almost no variation really); in 2005 it was 5, likely due to two hard freezes during nest excavation period.
- birds are selecting northern hardwoods, and areas on slopes just below the rim, and NOT down in the “bowl”; nest sites are in the largest trees within a plot; cavities are made in dead or mostly dead snags in live trees.
- Sugar Maple, Black Locust, and Red Maple were preferred nest trees; some nests within 100m of each other, but birds foraged wider; seemed to “skip” over territories to get to certain “feeding” trees; hickories used extensively early in spring, after which they used sugar and red maple’s, red oak, yellow poplar and others; Serviceberry a very important component of food to nestlings in June.
- we noted intense nest competition/usurpation by the squirrels; at least one banded pair has returned to the same territory/snag 3 years in a row.
Comments:
- funding provided mainly by USFWS, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, and Mars Hill College; logistic help from NPS. We did a broad “So. App” survey with staff plus volunteers; also did the focal study at 3 sites in NC.
