Nesting Behavior of Pale-Billed Woodpeckers in Guatemala
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
October 1977] GeneralNotes 773 Femalesof the available seriesfrom the Solomonsforms differ from beehleri in being more uniform in colorthroughout, whereas an apparentadult femalefrom New Ireland hasa darker cap setoff from the very darkolive-fuscous back, and a brownishpatch on the upper abdomen, the feathers edged with palerbrown. Frompapuensisof adjacentmainland New Guinea,beehleri differs by smallersize, and lacking the broad concolorous,lighter brown sides of head, neck, and upper breast, found in both sexesof that form. ETYMOLOGY:named for Bruce Beehler, now a graduatestudent at PrincetonUniversity, who collected material for the Smithsonian'sNational Museum of Natural History while working at the Wau Ecology Institute, Papua New Guinea. COMMENTS:an isolatedmontane form known only from the typedocalitybut probably occurringin stuntedmossy forest on the summitsof the ridgesof mountainson New Ireland, Papua-New Guinea. I am grateful to the authorities of the Bird Department of the America Museum of Natural History, New York, for permissionto examinespecimens in their care.--S. DILLONRIPLEY, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ingtonD.C. 20560. Accepted30 Mar. 77. (This paper was subsidizedby the author.) Copulation Observed in Maroon-tailed Parakeets in Meta, Colombia.--To my knowledge copulation in the Maroon-tailed Parakeet (Pyrrhura melanura) has not been describedin the literature. The followingis a descriptionof thisbehavior I watchedon 25January 1976 near Campamiento Chamusa on the Duda River, La MacarenaNational Park, Meta, Colombia(2ø42'N, 74ø10'W;alt. 250 m). The birdswere observed at less than 30-m distance with the aid of 12 x binoculars. At 0723 two Maroon-tailed Parakeetslanded 20 m abovethe groundin the dead branchesof a living tree on the southbank of the Duda River. The birdswere 1.5-2 m apart. At 0725 the male flew over to join the female. Mutual bodygrooming of the neckand back beganimmediately and continuedfor 1 min. At 0726 the femalepresented herself to the maleby stretchingout, on top of and parallelto the supportingbranch, with her posteriortoward the male.The malequickly mounted the female by steppingup ontoher rump and lowerback, placinghis long pointed tail downwardon the right sideof the female'sbody. The femalethen movedher tail outwardto the left side,facilitating the placementof the male'scloaca in contactwith hers. During copulationthe male'stail and lower backrotated slowly in a clockwisedirection and he ruffled the female'sneck feathers with hisbill. The femaleresponded to the male'sbehavior by remainingstill and emittingapproximately 12 low "cooing"calls. At 0728:30the maledismounted to the rear after beingon top of the femalefor 2.5 min. He immediately"pumped" his head and neck,with thefeathers ruffed, up and downvigorously 7 or 8 times.Both birds returned to normalperching positions. The maleinitiated mutual groomingagain, which lastedfor about30 sec.At 0729 both birdsmoved apart, beganlow raucouscalling and flew away simultaneouslyacross the river to the north. The female flew slightly ahead of the male.--THOMAS O. LEMKE,Institute for the Developmentof Renewable Natural Resources(INDERENA), Smithsonian-PeaceCorps EnvironmentalProgram, % American Embassy,Bogotd, Colombia. Ac- cepted 7 July 76. Nesting behavior of Pale-billed Woodpeckers in Guatemala.--Between 22 Januaryand 3 February 1976,while stayingat Tikal, Guatemala,I observedlate stagesof the nestingbehavior of 3 pairsof Pale-billedWoodpeckers (Campephilus guatemalensis). Table 1 givesdetails of the nests.Skutch (1969, PacificCoast Avifauna 35: 440) has given a previousaccount of thisspecies. The following,however, appear to be aspectsof behavior not reported by others. (1) Feeding visits.--My wife and I watched nest A in times divided between midmorningsand late afternoons.The singlenestling fledged 8 daysafter observations began. Of 35 feedingvisits seen in 13h, 18 wereby thefemale and 17by the male.Intervals between visits averaged 22 min, but variedbetween none in 1« h to 6, all by the male, in 36 min. (2) Prey.--The entranceto nestA, where the youngone was fed, was low (Table 1) and favorablefor observation.We couldthus see that on 22 of the 35 visitsthe prey broughtby parentsconsisted of a single whitelarva, approximately0.6 cmin diameterand 3-4 cmlong, sufficiently large to preventthe mandibles fromclosing. One thrust of theparent's bill wasusually enough to transferthe prey to thenestling. Parents also carried large larvae to nest B. (3) Beggingnotes.--The young in nestA peeredfrequently from the holebefore fledging. It made "chittery"notes (apparently begging) on seeing a parent approaching, while being fed, and after a parenthad left but wasstill in view. Whenalone at othertimes, the youngone remained silent. (4)Fledging.--The nestling of nest C leanedout from the nest hole on the day before fledging, making loud "kuk-kuk-kwirra"notes. It calledat 0704on the following morning when it flewfrom the hole to a tree5 m 774 General Notes [Auk, Vol. 94 TABLE 1 DATA ON 3 PALE-BILLED WOODPECKER NESTS AND 1 LINEATED WOODPECKER NEST AT TIKAL IN JANUARYAND FEBRUARY1976 Nesting pairs Comparisonswith Parameters A B C 1 nest of D. lineatus Location of nest Dead stub Dead stub Bole of living tree, Dead stub; part of in forest edge of forest edge of forest living tree. In open. Height above ground 3 m 9.5 m 10 m 9 m Nestlings 1 Nestling Not seen 1 Nestling Nest excavation completed and copulations begun. Date fledged 25 January -- 2 February away and again on the morningafter, when I locatedit 50 m from the nesttree. The male made"kwirra" notesas if in response.When the maleflew theyoung one followed, and whenthe young one approached, the parentmoved away. Theseperformances, kept up for 20 min, appearedto be a successfuleffort of the male to lead the fledgling into the forest. Comparisonswith Lineated Woodpecker.--Likethe Crimson-crested(C. melanoleucos) (Kilham 1972, Wilõon Bull. 84: 28) the closelyrelated Pale-billedWoodpecker is syrupatticwith the Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopuslineatus) of similar size. It would seempossible that the Campephilusspecies might compete with thelatter for nestingsites. Although my datawere limited, it did seemthat competitionwas avoided in Panamaby Lineatedsbreeding later than the Crimson-crestedWoodpeckers and choosingdifferent types of nestsites. I found much the samesituation at Tikal. In the last of Januaryand the first day of February, whenyoung from threenests of Pale-billedWoodpeckers were well developedor fledged,a pair ofLineateds (Table 1) was excavatinga nesthole and copulating.The copulationon 1 February lasted7 secand took placeon a tree 60 m from the excavation.While the excavationwas in a stub similar to thoseused by the Pale-billsit stoodmore in the openbeing surrounded, in part, by lawns and openroadways.--LAWRENCE KILHAM,Department of Microbiology,Dartmouth Medical School,Hanover, New Hampshire03755. Accepted 9 July 76. Pale-billed Woodpeckers robbed of nest hole by Collared Ara½/aris.--On 14 January 1976, whilestaying at LaSelva,a stationrun by theOrganization for TropicalStudies, Inc., in CostaPica, I found a male Pale-billedWoodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis) excavating a nestin a stub 10m tall and 45 cm dbh. The stubhad fungalbrackets and appearedto be well rotted,for the male threw manybillfuls of sawdustfrom a hole 7 m abovethe ground.I watchedthe male excavatingfor 115rain in the morningand the femalefor 57 rain in the afternoon.Although able to getcompletely within the hole, the maleflew off at duskand did notroost there. On thenext day, heavy rains fell, andI watchedthe male excavate for 73rain in themiddle of the day. On 16January, at 0755,the pair of woodpeckers had an abortivecopulation, followed in 3 min by a full copulationlasting 7 secon a tree 50 m from the nest. The nest stub roseabove small treesin secondgrowth forest at the edgeof a field. A group of 4 Collared Ara!;ariToucans (Pteroglossus torquatus) came by frequentlyand on 14January I noticedthat onepaused 6 m away, as if watchingthe malewoodpecker excavating. My wife foundan ara!;arilooking from the nest holeat 0945 two dayslater. At 10001 waswatching as 4 ara!;ariscame to a branch7 m from the hole. First one, then a secondflew to the holeand entered,remaining inside for severalminutes. I did not seethe woodpeckersby their nest stub during the morning. Boththe male and female woodpeckers excavated briefly in theafternoon. The tappingand exchanges of intimatenotes accompanying their meetings were similar to thosedescribed (Kilham 1972, Wilson Bull. 84: 28)for the Crimson-crestedWoodpecker (C. melanoleucos),a closely related species. I returnedin thelate afternoonto seewhat bird, ara•;arior woodpecker,might roost in the hole.On arrival at 17101 foundan aca!;arilooking from the entrance.When the malePale-billed Woodpecker flew to a tree6 m away,the ara!;ariwithdrew inside. The woodpeckerslowly ascended the tree,occasionally rapping (a displacement activity).It flewaway as dusk came on 10rain later. This was the last that I sawof thewoodpeckers by the neststub. The ara•arihad taken possession of the hole, it seemed,at thetime of itscompletion, a situation previouslywitnessed for Crimson-crestedWoodpeckers and CollaredAra•ari in Panama(Kilham, ibid.). Skutch(1958, Condor 60: 201)noted that the Pale-billedand Lineated(Dryocopus lineatus) are the only .