Parental care in northern flickers

啄木鸟被称为森林生态系统中的关键物种，因为它们挖掘的洞穴是各种其他物种赖以筑巢的地方。这种生态作用使它们成为保护和管理的重要目标。 我研究啄木鸟的行为和生态，试图了解影响其繁殖成功的因素。随着我的长期研究和色带人口的北方闪烁在不列颠哥伦比亚省，我收集数据巢树的使用，philopatry，配偶的选择，以及捕食者和天气对巢成功的影响。 我目前的研究重点之一是栖息地质量和觅食的努力，男性和女性。我将采样丰富的蚂蚁和其他节肢动物，主要食物的flickers，在有关栖息地的边缘和不同演替阶段的草地。我将跟踪无线电标记的个体，看看它们在觅食时如何权衡能量需求和捕食风险。我也对男性和女性的不同父母照顾角色感兴趣，以及每个人如何决定对后代投资多少。我将对繁殖对的羽毛中的皮质酮（一种应激激素）进行采样，并将其与它们在供应年轻时的努力程度联系起来，还将在羽翼未丰后无线电跟踪家庭群体，看看父母喂养年轻人多久，以及家庭如何在景观中移动。最后，我将给一些个体安装地理定位器，这是一种新的跟踪设备，可以让我跟踪移民运动，看看这些与父母的努力有什么关系。我的研究提供了关于动物如何决定对后代进行投资的见解，以及这对它们的生存和繁殖成功的影响。它将帮助野生动物管理人员有效地优先考虑所需的栖息地数量和类型，以确保景观上稳定的闪烁种群。

Woodpeckers are called keystone species in forest ecosystems because they excavate holes which a wide variety of other species rely on for nesting. This ecological role makes them important targets for conservation and management. I study the behaviour and ecology of woodpeckers in an attempt to understand factors that influence their reproductive success. With my long-term study and colour-banded population of Northern Flickers in British Columbia, I collect data on nest tree use, philopatry, mate choice, and the effects of predators and weather on nest success. One focus of my current research is habitat quality and foraging effort by males and females. I will sample the abundance of ants and other arthropods, the main food of flickers, in relation to habitat edges and different successional stages of grassland. I will follow radio-tagged individuals to see how they trade-off energy demands from their brood with predation risk while foraging. I am also interested in the different parental care roles of males and females, and how each decides how much to invest in offspring. I will sample corticosterone (a stress hormone) in feathers of breeding pairs and relate this to how hard they work when provisioning young and will also radio-track family groups after fledging to see how long parents feed the young, and how the families move on the landscape. Finally, I will fit some individuals with geolocators, new tracking devices which allow me to follow migration movements and see how these relate to parental effort. My research provides insights into how animals decide to invest in offspring, and the consequences this has for their survival and reproductive success. It will help wildlife managers efficiently prioritize the amount and type of habitat needed to ensure stable populations of flickers on the landscape.