Habitat Ecology of Pileated Woodpeckers on Hoopa Valley Reservation

Pilaeated woodpeckers (pileateds) are associated with older forests stages—larger diameter trees and snags for roosting, nesting and foraging but also use managed forests. The Hoopa Reservation (Hoopa) is approximately 37,000 ha of mostly forested area with an array of seral stages. The Hoopa Tribe (Tribe) manages timber, and makes provisions for woodpeckers. No formal study has assessed pileated habitat at Hoopa, and habitat has not been well described in this region. Eleven pileateds were captured and outfitted with transmitters between 2009-2014. Resource Selection Functions determined habitat selection. We compared used and available habitat, buffered with median telemetry error for all pileateds. We applied logistic regression, with pileateds as a random effect to fit a models to habitat covariates. We found that pileateds select for density attributes at 1-8 and 32-72 meters and distance to creeks within their home ranges, which averaged 213 ha (138-324 ha), smaller than most home ranges previously reported. Seral stages was not a good predictor of pileated woodpecker use. This study was to assess the Tribe’s current practices.