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Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit

Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) has experienced population declines in both Canada and the United States and in 2010 was assigned a national listing of threatened in Canada. We conducted a two-year study (2004–2005) of this species at its northern range limit, the South Okanagan Valley in...

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Autores principales: Zhu, Xiang, Srivastava, Diane S., Smith, James N. M., Martin, Kathy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445559/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23028525
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044346
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author Zhu, Xiang
Srivastava, Diane S.
Smith, James N. M.
Martin, Kathy
author_facet Zhu, Xiang
Srivastava, Diane S.
Smith, James N. M.
Martin, Kathy
author_sort Zhu, Xiang
collection PubMed
description Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) has experienced population declines in both Canada and the United States and in 2010 was assigned a national listing of threatened in Canada. We conducted a two-year study (2004–2005) of this species at its northern range limit, the South Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Our main objective was to determine whether the habitat features that influenced nest-site selection also predicted nest success, or whether other factors (e.g. cavity dimensions, clutch initiation date or time of season) were more important. Nest tree decay class, density of suitable cavities and total basal area of large trees were the best predictors of nest-site selection, but these factors were unrelated to nesting success. Estimates of demographic parameters (mean ± SE) included daily nest survival rate (0.988±0.003, years combined), nest success (0.52±0.08), clutch size (5.00±0.14 eggs), female fledglings per successful nest (1.31±0.11), and annual productivity (0.68±0.12 female fledglings per nest per year). Although higher nest survival was associated with both early and late initiated clutches, early-initiated clutches allowed birds to gain the highest annual productivity as early clutches were larger. Nests in deep cavities with small entrances experienced lower predation risk especially during the peak period of nest predation. We concluded that nest-site selection can be predicted by a number of easily measured habitat variables, whereas nest success depended on complicated ecological interactions among nest predators, breeding behaviors, and cavity features. Thus, habitat-based conservation strategies should also consider ecological factors that may not be well predicted by habitat.
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spelling pubmed-34455592012-10-01 Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit Zhu, Xiang Srivastava, Diane S. Smith, James N. M. Martin, Kathy PLoS One Research Article Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) has experienced population declines in both Canada and the United States and in 2010 was assigned a national listing of threatened in Canada. We conducted a two-year study (2004–2005) of this species at its northern range limit, the South Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Our main objective was to determine whether the habitat features that influenced nest-site selection also predicted nest success, or whether other factors (e.g. cavity dimensions, clutch initiation date or time of season) were more important. Nest tree decay class, density of suitable cavities and total basal area of large trees were the best predictors of nest-site selection, but these factors were unrelated to nesting success. Estimates of demographic parameters (mean ± SE) included daily nest survival rate (0.988±0.003, years combined), nest success (0.52±0.08), clutch size (5.00±0.14 eggs), female fledglings per successful nest (1.31±0.11), and annual productivity (0.68±0.12 female fledglings per nest per year). Although higher nest survival was associated with both early and late initiated clutches, early-initiated clutches allowed birds to gain the highest annual productivity as early clutches were larger. Nests in deep cavities with small entrances experienced lower predation risk especially during the peak period of nest predation. We concluded that nest-site selection can be predicted by a number of easily measured habitat variables, whereas nest success depended on complicated ecological interactions among nest predators, breeding behaviors, and cavity features. Thus, habitat-based conservation strategies should also consider ecological factors that may not be well predicted by habitat. Public Library of Science 2012-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3445559/ /pubmed/23028525 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044346 Text en © 2012 Zhu et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhu, Xiang
Srivastava, Diane S.
Smith, James N. M.
Martin, Kathy
Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit
title Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit
title_full Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit
title_fullStr Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit
title_full_unstemmed Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit
title_short Habitat Selection and Reproductive Success of Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) at Its Northern Limit
title_sort habitat selection and reproductive success of lewis's woodpecker (melanerpes lewis) at its northern limit
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445559/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23028525
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044346
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