Parental care in northern flickers

啄木鸟在森林生态系统中被称为关键物种，因为它们挖掘各种其他物种赖以筑巢的洞穴。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，试图了解影响它们繁殖成功的因素。通过我在不列颠哥伦比亚省的长期研究和北方闪光鸟的色带种群，我收集了关于巢树使用、交配、配偶选择以及捕食者和天气对巢成功的影响的数据。 我目前的研究重点之一是栖息地质量和雄性和雌性的觅食努力。我将采样蚂蚁和其他节肢动物的丰度，它们是闪烁的主要食物，与栖息地边缘和草原的不同演替阶段有关。我将跟踪跟踪无线电标记的个体，看看它们在觅食时如何在幼崽的能量需求和捕食风险之间权衡。我还对男性和女性扮演的不同的父母照顾角色，以及每个人如何决定在后代身上投资多少感兴趣。我将在配种对的羽毛中采集皮质酮(一种应激激素)的样本，并将其与它们在为幼崽提供食物时的努力程度联系起来，还将在羽毛发育成熟后对家庭群体进行无线电跟踪，看看父母喂养幼崽的时间有多长，以及这些家庭是如何在自然环境中移动的。最后，我会给一些个体安装地理定位器，这是一种新的跟踪设备，可以让我跟踪迁徙的动向，看看这些与父母的努力有什么关系。我的研究为动物如何决定投资于后代，以及这对它们的生存和繁殖成功带来的后果提供了洞察力。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动种群。

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.