NEST SITES AND NEST WEBS FOR CAVITY-NESTING COMMUNITIES IN INTERIOR BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA: NEST CHARACTERISTICS AND NICHE PARTITIONING

Abstract

Abstract The mixed forests of interior British Columbia, Canada, support a rich community of cavity nesters, accounting for about one-third of forest vertebrate species. For 20 cavity-nesting bird and six cavity-nesting mammal species, representing excavators and secondary cavity nesters, we measured nest-cavity and nest-tree characteristics over 8 years in Interior Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forest ecosystems. There was overwhelming selection for quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides); 95% of 1692 cavity nests were in aspen, which comprised only 15% of trees available. The full range of live and dead trees were used, but we observed a strong preference for live trees with decay (45% of nests) or dead trees (45% of nests). A cluster analysis based on tree and cavity characteristics divided the community into five groups, including large- and medium-sized woodpeckers and a group comprised mostly of weak excavators. A fourth group included Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus), the most abundant excava...