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2001

Faculty Publications

Forest Biology

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

An Unusually Large Number Of Eggs Laid By A Breeding Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Female, Richard N. Conner, Daniel Saenz, James R. Mccormick Jan 2001

An Unusually Large Number Of Eggs Laid By A Breeding Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Female, Richard N. Conner, Daniel Saenz, James R. Mccormick

Faculty Publications

The Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is a cooperatively breeding species that typically uses a single cavity for nesting (Ligon 1970, Walters et al. 1988). A single tree, or aggregation of cavity trees, termed the cluster, is inhabited by a group of woodpeckers that includes a single breeding pair and up to several helpers, which are typically male offspring of previous breeding seasons (Ligon 1970, Lennartz et al. 1987). Each group of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers usually produces one nest per breeding season, but will often nest again during the same breeding season if the first nest fails. Double clutching and …


A Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Group With Two Simultaneous Nest Trees, Richard N. Conner, James R. Mccormick, Richard R. Schaefer, Daniel Saenz, D. Craig Rudolph Jan 2001

A Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Group With Two Simultaneous Nest Trees, Richard N. Conner, James R. Mccormick, Richard R. Schaefer, Daniel Saenz, D. Craig Rudolph

Faculty Publications

During a study of Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) nesting in eastern Texas, we discovered a single breeding pair of woodpeckers with two simultaneous nests in nest trees that were 24 m apart. Incubation of eggs in each nest tree was at least 13 d and may have been as long as 16 d. The breeding male incubated and fed a nestling in one nest tree, and the breeding female incubated and fed a nestling in the other nest tree until the nestlings were >24 d old. Prior to fledging, both the breeding male and female were observed feeding …