THE INFLUENCE OF STARLINGS ON FLICKER REPRODUCTION WHEN BOTH NATURALLY EXCAVATED CAVITIES AND ARTIFICIAL NEST BOXES ARE AVAILABLE

摘要

I monitored 54 pairs of Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus), with artificial nest boxes placed near their nest cavities, during three breeding seasons in Ohio to determine whether such boxes would help reduce nest-site competition by European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Twenty-seven of 40 flicker pairs in the presence of starlings (68/100) lost a total of 42 cavities to starlings in spite of the presence of a nearby flicker nest box, and nine of these pairs lost two or more cavities to starlings. Thus, the presence of nest boxes did not appear to help nesting flickers and in fact may have deterred them by attracting additional starlings.