Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Red-cockaded woodpeckers are territorial, nonmigratory birds that depend on southern pine forests. They are ecologically important in this ecosystem in part because the cavities they excavate provide habitat for many other birds, which may include chickadees, bluebirds, titmice, and other woodpecker species. Larger woodpeckers may enlarge the original cavities enough to accommodate screech owls, flying squirrels, wood ducks, raccoons, and several species of reptiles and amphibians. Because of the important habitat they create, red-cockaded woodpeckers are a keystone species, a species that has ecological importance well beyond their abundance.

They are the only woodpeckers to build nests in living trees, requiring longleaf or loblolly pines at least 70 years old. At this age, pine trees become susceptible to a fungus that softens the heartwood and makes cavities easier for the birds to excavate. Because the extent of the mature pine forests on which they rely has been greatly reduced by agriculture and logging, red-cockaded woodpeckers are a federally listed endangered species. Their original population, which once stretched from Florida to New Jersey and as far west as eastern Texas and Oklahoma, has declined by 99 percent.

Most pine trees are harvested before they reach the age at which they become suitable nesting sites for red-cockaded woodpeckers. Fire suppression policies have also contributed to the species’ decline, because the species requires an open forest understory maintained by frequent, low-intensity burns.

Recent management strategies, including reintroducing fire and building artificial nest cavities, have increased woodpecker populations. From 1993 to 2006, the number of red-cockaded woodpecker groups increased almost 30 percent, to about 6,000. Military installations in the South have emerged as important habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers. Special management guidelines have had great success in increasing the size of populations at six bases: Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Polk in Louisiana, and North Carolina’s Fort Bragg and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

Although much of the woodpecker’s remaining suitable habitat is located on private land, many landowners prefer not to harbor endangered species due to the expense of complying with restrictions on land use and worries about future constraints on their property. To encourage private landowners to manage in a way that enhances the survival of the species, voluntary programs known as Safe Harbor Agreements provide regulatory assurances to landowners in exchange for their help in maintaining and enhancing habitat. Several southern states have Safe Harbor programs, with over 300,000 acres enrolled. One of these Safe Harbor Agreements is in place at The Nature Conservancy’s Piney Grove Preserve in Virginia, home to the northernmost population of red-cockaded woodpeckers.

Conservation banking is another public-private conservation initiative that plays an important role in the recovery of the red-cockaded woodpecker. In 1999, International Paper began a woodpecker habitat conservation bank on its Southlands Experimental Forest near Bainbridge, Georgia. This relatively intact area is prime woodpecker habitat, and putting aside several thousand acres for the birds gave the company more flexibility in timber management on its other woodpecker sites, where habitat was less ideal. The population at the Southlands site increased from just three individuals in 2000 to 50 birds, including 13 breeding pairs, in 2005. In 2008, the state of Georgia purchased the Southlands woodpecker site from International Paper.