Effects of cavity orientation on nesting success inferred from long-term monitoring of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.

ABSTRACT: Animals that create structures often display non-random patterns in the direction of their constructions. This tendency of oriented construction is widely presumed to be an adaptive trait of the constructor's extended phenotype, but there is little empirical support for this hypothesis. Particularly, for cavity nesting-birds there is a lack of studies examining this issue. In this study of a primary cavity excavator, the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis), we show that cavity entrances exhibited a strong westward bias in all 11 of the populations examined throughout the geographic range of the species in the southeastern United States. This species requires cavities in living pine trees for roosting and nesting that often take many years to complete, resulting in many

SUBMITTER: Landler L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9270470 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature