Diet of nestling Red-cockaded Woodpeckers at three locations

We conducted a 2-yr study of the nestling diet of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) at three locations to determine how it varied among sit es. We photographed 5939 nest visits by adult woodpeckers delivering food i tems for nestlings. In 1994, we located cameras near three nest cavities on the Lower Coastal Plain of South Carolina and near two cavities at the Sav annah River Site, which is on the Upper Coastal Plain. In 1995, cameras wer e installed on the Savannah River Site and in the Piedmont National Wildlif e Refuge, Georgia. The cameras recorded activity bringing 33 different type s of food to nestlings. Wood roaches (Blattoidea, Blattellidae, Parcoblatta spp.) were the most common food composing 50% of the diet overall. They we re also the most common prey at each location and for all but one of the wo odpecker groups studied. Wood roaches were recorded in 26% of the visits ph otographed on the Lower Coastal Plain and 62% of the nest visits on the Upp er Coastal Plain in 1994. In 1995, wood roaches were recorded in 57% and 50 % of the visits on the Upper Coastal Plain and Piedmont, respectively. Wood peckers on the Lower Coastal Plain used blueberries (Vaccinum sp.) and sawf ly larvae (Hymenoptera: Diprionidae, Neodiprion sp.), two dietary items not commonly used at the other locations. Adults at two locations providing sn ail shells to nestlings possibly as an additional source of calcium. Morist a's index of diet overlap (C) ranged from 0.04 to 0.99 for breeding males a nd females in the same group, from 0.63 to 0.99 among groups at the same lo cation, and from 0.68 to 0.96 among locations. Because diet overlap of Red- cockaded Woodpecker nestlings at different geographical locations was withi n the range that occurred among group at the same location, we conclude tha t nestling diets are similar across the Geographical area studied, and that it varies little from year to year.