The recovery of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers sometimes stumbles over genetics, such as when inbreeding at small, isolated populations results in fewer eggs hatching and fewer chicks surviving.
This spring, DNR and Tall Timbers have been exploring whether “cross-fostering” can boost genetic diversity at woodpecker clusters in the Red Hills region of southwest Georgia and north Florida.
In this practice, chicks 7-10 days old and similar in age and weight are banded and swapped between nest cavities as fast as possible. One chick is swapped per nest and only nests with at least two are considered. Biologist Joe Burnam, who leads DNR’s work with red-cockaded woodpeckers, said the birds are then monitored to document their sex and see if they fledge and stay at their new address.
If cross-fostering works, it could provide an easier and more effective gene-mixing option than the current practice of moving 5- to 6-month-old woodpeckers.
MEANWHILE, AT SPREWELL BLUFF WMA
First clutch from woodpeckers translocated to Sprewell Bluff (Nathan Klaus/DNR)
More red-cockaded woodpecker news: Two of the three pairs moved from Fort Stewart to Sprewell Bluff Wildlife Management Area near Thomaston last winter have nested, laid eggs and hatched chicks. As of early June, DNR had banded two of the nestlings to help monitor them.
Reintroduced to Sprewell Bluff after an almost 50-year absence, endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers are symbolic of the partner-rich effort to restore longleaf pine savannas at the middle Georgia WMA.
But with four of the six newcomers already raising young, the woodpeckers are also exceeding the usual 50-percent success rate for translocating this species.