Conclusion
Here we evaluated the link between food resources and an ecosystem
engineer, and the subsequent influence of this engineer on local
secondary cavity nesters. We observed that GFWO nest site location and
home range size was positively correlated to biomass of the same three
orders of insects that make up large proportions of their diet, and that
all SCB had higher nest success in abandoned woodpecker cavities than
natural cavities. Thus, GFWO nest in areas with abundant food and SCB
reap the benefits of the stable cavities they leave behind, along with
opportunistically high insect loads. Our results also suggest that GFWO
nest characteristics may influence nest success in ways that differ from
more temperate species, indicating future research avenues into
energetics and predation pressure tradeoffs in high temperature regions.
Additionally, management for woodpeckers and SCB in southern Texas
should not focus on the availability of snags (a common management
strategy for woodpeckers in temperate climates), but on the number of
live trees with a DBH wide enough for nesting.