Diet of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker in the Apalachicola National Forest

Abstract

Most territories of the largest population of red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis; RCWs) in the western district of the Apalachicola National Forest (ANF) do not meet the current foraging-habitat requirements in the recovery plan for this species. We suspect that more information about the relation between the diet of the RCW and its habitat is needed and would permit development of better guidelines for the ANF and other populations. We studied diets of adult and nestling RCWs and their relation to variation in habitat. We found that ants were the dominant prey item by biomass (58%). Additional major items in stomachs of adult RCWs were other arthropods, fruits and seeds, and wood. Of the 4 species of ants present in samples, 74% of the biomass consisted of eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of the arboreal ant Crematogaster ashmeadi. Territories burned more frequently had pine trees (Pinus spp.) with a higher diversity of ant species and lower proportions of trees occupied by C. ashmeadi than did territories burned less frequently. Also, stomach samples from adult male woodpeckers at frequently burned sites had lower proportions of ants, including C. ashmeadi. More information is needed about the dynamics of interspecific relations within arthropod communities of longleaf pine trees (P. palustris), the importance of ants to the ecology of the RCW, and the relevance of variation in habitat to diets of RCWs.