Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Here's the other federally listed endangered woodpecker of the Choctawhatchee Basin, and the only local woodpecker we'd never expect in our search area. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) laboriously excavates cavities through the sapwood to the heartwood of living pines. It is a habitat specialist, requiring open, fire-maintained areas with mature pines (usually longleaf) for both roosting and foraging. It nearly disappeared with the logging of the old growth longleaf forest and subsequent fire suppression, but with hands-on management its future is looking secure on nearby federal lands such as Eglin Air Force Base and Blackwater River State Forest in Florida, and Conecuh National Forest in Alabama, where this photo was taken last week. Should a breeding population of ivory-bills be confirmed, the species may benefit from some of what has been learned from conserving the Red-cockaded.

The Red-cockaded Woodpecker stays out of the swamps, but when the upland pine forests were primeval with centuries-old flat-topped pines as far as the eye could see, ivory-bills likely made forays into these areas to feed on the dying giant pines. We will never know, but under these conditions it is conceivable that the two woodpeckers may have had something of a commensal relationship on occasion. The small Red-cockaded is often an unwitting cavity provider for flying squirrels and other cavity competitors, contributing to local species richness. For example, the declining Southeastern American Kestrel still occurs on parts of Eglin AFB, and the birds are most often associated with the Red-cockaded Woodpecker groups, typically using abandoned cavities that have previously in turn been enlarged by other woodpeckers, such as Red-bellieds and Pileateds. It is certainly conceivable that in times long past, in at least a few longleaf or slash pines along ecotones between the pine uplands and the hardwood bottoms, the woodpecker cavity chain of ownership transferred from Red-cockaded to Ivory-billed. The advantage to the ivory-bill would not be the savings of labor, but the relative security the living tree would offer over a dead snag in the event of a fire, which was a frequent occurrence in the piney woods.

On another subject, if the tables were turned and the Red-cockaded was the bird we were hoping to prove the existence of, would this photo be good enough for everybody?