Home Range and Substrate Use by Two Family Groups 

 of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers 

 in the North Carolina Sandhills 



Richard R. Repasky 1 and Phillip D. Doerr 



Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University 



Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7617 



ABSTRACT. — Home range and foraging habitat use by two family 

 groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers {Picoides borealis) were studied 

 over the course of a year. Average year-round convex polygon home 

 range size was 159 ha. One family group selected foraging areas of 

 relatively high pine density within the home range, whereas the second 

 exhibited no selection. Most foraging occurred on living pines as has 

 been reported elsewhere. Overlap between the sexes in foraging niche, 

 defined in terms of foraging substrates, was low during winter, when 

 the percentage of activity spent feeding was greatest. These data 

 suggest that food limitation, if it occurs at all, is most severe during 

 early winter. 



The red-cockaded woodpecker, Picoides borealis (Vieillot), a species 

 endemic to the coastal plain of the southeastern United States (Murphey 

 1939, see Hooper et al. 1980 for a composite range map), is endangered 

 because of the declining availability of suitable habitats (Jackson 1971, 

 Thompson 1976, Lennartz et al. 1983). Its distribution is correlated with 

 the distribution of longleaf pine forest types that are 60+ years old 

 (Lennartz et al. 1983). Old living pines are known to be a critical 

 resource for nest and roost cavities (Jackson et al. 1979). There has also 

 been concern, because of the link with older forests, that those forests 

 (age 60+ years) provide foraging conditions necessary for the survival of 

 the species (Skorupa 1979, Ligon et al. 1986), but that has not been 

 demonstrated. We undertook this study in the Sandhills of North 

 Carolina, where the largest population of red-cockaded woodpeckers in 

 North Carolina is located (Carter et al. 1983) and where very little is 

 known of the foraging habits of this species. Our objectives were to 

 describe foraging habits in the region, to test for selection of forest 

 characteristics within home ranges that could be related to quality of 

 foraging habitat, and to identify that time of year when resources are 

 least abundant and hence habitat quality most critical. 



1 Present address: The Ecology Group, Department of Zoology, University of British 

 Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 2A9. 



Brimleyana 17:37-52, December 1991 37 



