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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 124. No. 2. June 2012 
and Delehanty 1999) and Mountain Plovers 
0 Charadrius montanus) (Blomqvist et al. 2001). 
Male woodpeckers are responsible for most of 
the incubation (Ligon 1999. Wiebe 2008). and this 
facilitates alternate reproductive strategies of 
females, such as polyandry (Wiebe and Kempe- 
naers 2009). There are rare reports of male 
woodpeckers rearing nestlings alone from time 
of early incubation (Wiebe 2005). but the number 
of fledglings from single-parent broods is low 
suggesting that bi-parental care is generally 
required for Hedging a complete brood (Ligon 
1999). Double-brooding also seems to be rare in 
North American picids. It has been documented 
only in Red-headed Woodpeckers (Melanerpes 
erythroceplialus ), (Smith and Layne 1986, Ingold 
1987). Gila Woodpeckers (M. uropygialis ), (lid- 
wards and Schnell 2000), and Red-cockaded 
Woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) (Connor et al. 
2001). We present evidence of an unusually 
compressed double-brooding attempt by a pair 
°f Northern Flickers (Colaptes an ranis) where 
a second brood was initiated before the first 
nestlings fledged. 
METHODS 
This observation occurred near Riske Creek. 
British Columbia. Canada(51 52' N. 122 21' W). 
the site of a long-term study on flickers where 
1.818 nest attempts have been monitored since 
1998 (Wiebe 2008). Each year, >95% of adults in 
the study area were trapped and color-banded for 
individual identification and a subset of these were 
fitted w ith radio transmitters. The unusual breeding 
behavior we observed was for a radio-marked pair 
in 2011. The parents were tracked simultaneously 
for 3-hr sessions when nestlings in the brood 
were 5. 10, 13. and 20 days of age. The nest was 
videotaped during these tracking sessions to record 
parental provisioning. Parents were tracked 1.5 hrs 
every-other day during the fledgling period. 
OBSERVATIONS 
We observed a Northern Flicker pair initiate a 
second clutch while still raising nestlings at a first 
nest. The first egg of the first nest was laid on 20 
May and the complete clutch contained eight 
eggs, which is a typical clutch size for birds at our 
study site (Wiebe and Moore 2008). We assume 
incubation began with the last egg and the pair 
would have begun incubation on 27 May. The 
male was (rapped and banded at the nest while 
meubatmg on 2 June and the female was trapped 
while incubating on 4 June. The male was 
brooding newly-hatched nestlings on 8 June but 
it was raining and they were not counted until 12 
June when there were five. It is possible that up to 
eight of the eggs hatched but several nestlings 
would have died in the first few days. We banded 
four nestlings on 28 June and they left the nest 
cavity on 3-4 July. 
We found the second nest in an existing tree 
cavity, -50 m from the first nest on 21 June 
(13 days after hatching of the first nest) when it 
contained tour eggs. We flushed the male from 
the second cavity on this day, and a few 1 minutes 
later saw him copulate with the radio-marked 
female from the first nest. The first egg of the 
second nest presumably was laid on Is June 
(fig. 1) and the second clutch consisted of eight 
eggs on June 26. 
file male and female flickers spent —50% of 
their time within 50 m of either nest, but the 
female did not provision nestlings at the first nest 
based on 967 min of video on days 5, 10, 13, and 
20. We do not know if she provided care in the 
first few days after hatching. We observed the 
male incubating eggs at night on day 20 in the 
second cavity while the female was roosting 
within the nest clump -100 m from the second 
nest with eggs, and —50 m from the first nest. The 
second nest was observed for 396 min on its third 
day of incubation when the nestlings at the first 
nest were 20 days of age. The male incubated for 
33 min and the female for 255 min. but the eggs 
were left unattended tor 27% of the time. 
T he male but not the female continued to care 
for the nestlings from the first brood after they left 
the nest. Four nestlings fledged from the first nest 
which is lower than the average for the popula¬ 
tion. The male no longer returned to the second 
nest to incubate during the post-fledging period. 
The female still took incubation shifts leaving the 
cavity unattended for up to 30 min at a time. On h 
July. 10 days after incubation began at the second 
nest, we found it abandoned with cold eggs 
covered in wood chips. 
DISCUSSION 
Our observation does not fit into the definition 
°f double-clutching because both the male and 
female contributed to parental care (incubation) at 
both nests. Neither does it fit into typical double- 
brooding because the second nest was initiated 
before the first brood fledged, i.e., when the 
nestlings were only 9 days of age. Compressed 
