Red-naped Sapsucker - Nest Site Selection

Nest Site Selection

Throughout western North America, Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) nests have been described primarily in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) with decay-softened wood. Heart-wood decay is reported to infect the roots of most aspens that red-naped sapsuckers choose to excavate for nesting.Red-naped Sapsucker's typically excavate their first cavity relatively close to the ground and over subsequent years make progressively higher excavations. Most (68%) nest trees were live and 75% had broken tops. Western larch (Larix occidentalis) and birch were greatly over utilized compared to their availability.

Read more about this topic:  Red-naped Sapsucker

Famous quotes containing the words nest, site and/or selection:

    Now’s the time for mirth and play,
    Saturday’s an holiday;
    Praise to heaven unceasing yield,
    I’ve found a lark’s nest in the field.
    Christopher Smart (1722–1771)

    It’s given new meaning to me of the scientific term black hole.
    Don Logan, U.S. businessman, president and chief executive of Time Inc. His response when asked how much his company had spent in the last year to develop Pathfinder, Time Inc.’S site on the World Wide Web. Quoted in New York Times, p. D7 (November 13, 1995)

    Every writer is necessarily a critic—that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on.... The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg—nine-tenths of him is under water.
    Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)