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Abundant Natural Cavities in a Deciduous Forest Leads to a Lack of Nest-box Occupancy by Northern Saw-whet Owls

Joseph M. Elias1,2 and Scott H. Stoleson2,*

1Keystone College, 1 College Road, La Plume, PA 18440. 2USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Irvine, PA 16329. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist,Volume 28, Issue 2 (2021): 202–210

Abstract
Nest boxes are commonly used for species that utilize tree cavities, including small owls. Boxes were installed in 2011 to facilitate study of Northern Saw-whet Owls in Pennsylvania. We checked the 11 boxes that remained in 2020 after a hiatus of 8 years and found 3 rodent nests, but no evidence of owl usage. Playbacks revealed owls were present at 8 of 11 boxes checked. Cavity surveys yielded an average of 7.7 large cavities within 50 m of each box; extrapolation of cavity densities to a minimal territory size of 150 ha suggested that suitable cavities are an abundant, non-limiting resource here. Cavity abundance was likely a consequence of beech bark disease complex having recently top-killed most large American Beech trees locally, providing abundant resources for excavating woodpeckers. Assessing cavity abundance should be an essential first step for any management project involving cavity-nesting birds, and nest boxes should be used only in situations where cavities appear to be limited.

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