A Red-cockaded woodpecker group with two simultaneous nest trees

During a study of Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) nesting in ea stern Texas, we discovered a single breeding pair of woodpeckers with two s imultaneous nests in nest trees that were 24 m apart. Incubation of eggs in each nest tree was at least 13 d and may have been as long as 16 d. The br eeding male incubated and fed a nestling in one nest tree and the breeding female incubated and fed a nestling in the other nest tree until the nestli ngs were greater than or equal to 24 d old. Prior to fledging, both the bre eding male and female were observed feeding both nestlings in both nest tre es. The pair successfully hedged the two nestlings, a single fledging from each nest tree, during one nesting cycle. After the nestlings were fledged, both the male and female woodpeckers were observed feeding both fledglings about 350 m from the pair of nest trees. Our observations indicate that th ere are exceptions to the current theory that the contribution by the breed ing male and female to incubation and feeding of nestlings is essential and that neither the male nor the female can normally rear young birds without the contribution of the other.