Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Splendid Fairy-wrens: demonstrating the importance of longevity
- 2 Green Woodhoopoes: life history traits and sociality
- 3 Red-cockaded Woodpeckers: a ‘primitive’ cooperative breeder
- 4 Arabian Babblers: the quest for social status in a cooperative breeder
- 5 Hoatzins: cooperative breeding in a folivorous neotropical bird
- 6 Campylorhynchus wrens: the ecology of delayed dispersal and cooperation in the Venezuelan savanna
- 7 Pinyon Jays: making the best of a bad situation by helping
- 8 Florida Scrub Jays: a synopsis after 18 years of study
- 9 Mexican Jays: uncooperative breeding
- 10 Galápagos mockingbirds: territorial cooperative breeding in a climatically variable environment
- 11 Groove-billed Anis: joint-nesting in a tropical cuckoo
- 12 Galápagos and Harris' Hawks: divergent causes of sociality in two raptors
- 13 Pukeko: different approaches and some different answers
- 14 Acorn Woodpeckers: group-living and food storage under contrasting ecological conditions
- 15 Dunnocks: cooperation and conflict among males and females in a variable mating system
- 16 White-fronted Bee-eaters: helping in a colonially nesting species
- 17 Pied Kingfishers: ecological causes and reproductive consequences of cooperative breeding
- 18 Noisy Miners: variations on the theme of communality
- Summary
- Index
3 - Red-cockaded Woodpeckers: a ‘primitive’ cooperative breeder
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Splendid Fairy-wrens: demonstrating the importance of longevity
- 2 Green Woodhoopoes: life history traits and sociality
- 3 Red-cockaded Woodpeckers: a ‘primitive’ cooperative breeder
- 4 Arabian Babblers: the quest for social status in a cooperative breeder
- 5 Hoatzins: cooperative breeding in a folivorous neotropical bird
- 6 Campylorhynchus wrens: the ecology of delayed dispersal and cooperation in the Venezuelan savanna
- 7 Pinyon Jays: making the best of a bad situation by helping
- 8 Florida Scrub Jays: a synopsis after 18 years of study
- 9 Mexican Jays: uncooperative breeding
- 10 Galápagos mockingbirds: territorial cooperative breeding in a climatically variable environment
- 11 Groove-billed Anis: joint-nesting in a tropical cuckoo
- 12 Galápagos and Harris' Hawks: divergent causes of sociality in two raptors
- 13 Pukeko: different approaches and some different answers
- 14 Acorn Woodpeckers: group-living and food storage under contrasting ecological conditions
- 15 Dunnocks: cooperation and conflict among males and females in a variable mating system
- 16 White-fronted Bee-eaters: helping in a colonially nesting species
- 17 Pied Kingfishers: ecological causes and reproductive consequences of cooperative breeding
- 18 Noisy Miners: variations on the theme of communality
- Summary
- Index
Summary
The Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) is a monotypic species endemic to the south-eastern United States, similar in appearance to its more familiar congeners, the Downy (P. pubescens) and Hairy (P. villosus) Woodpeckers. It is isolated taxonomically from its relatives (Short 1982), and ecologically is even more distinct, exhibiting an unusual set of life-history features that includes cooperative breeding.
The ecology of an endangered cooperative breeder
The Red-cockaded Woodpecker was placed on the federal list of endangered species in 1968. It was once abundant in the Piedmont and coastal plain of the south-east, ranging north to New Jersey, west to Texas, and inland to Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri (Jackson 1971). Now it is virtually extirpated north of North Carolina, and in all interior states but Arkansas. Most remaining populations are isolated and small, and many continue to decline. Only four populations of 300 groups or more exist. The total population is still reasonably large, however, numbering perhaps as many as 10000 individuals.
The conservation of the species is a major controversial issue in the south-east (US Fish and Wildlife Service 1985; Jackson 1986; Ligon et al 1986), affecting land use practices over vast areas. In particular, there is conflict between protecting the bird and managing timber. This interest in conservation was the impetus for most studies that provide information on basic biology. The ecology of the species, almost unknown in 1970, is now well researched.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cooperative Breeding in BirdsLong Term Studies of Ecology and Behaviour, pp. 67 - 102Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990
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