In the bird world, different species use different strategies to raise their young. Here in the Sonoran Desert some choose to nest in holes. The most obvious cavity-nesting bird in our region is the Gila woodpecker, but others nest here as well, including purple martins and even the tiny Lucy’s warbler.
But as Jonathan Horst, a Restoration Ecologist for Tucson Audubon, points out, many cavity-nesting species are incapable of excavating their own homes and require woodpecker holes or naturally occurring cavities. Naturally occurring cavities are in increasingly short supply due to management of fires, development, and logging. This lack of available nesting cavities is cited as a population-limiting factor for most of these species.
Horst will discuss the situation in a lecture, “At Home with Birds in Our Urban Desert: Reconciliation Ecology of Cavity-Nesters,” at 3:30 p.m. Thursday (June 4) in the Arizona Senior Academy’s Great Room.
While nest boxes have been used to great success in many regions, Horst says they have not been utilized to any great extent in the Southwestern deserts, primarily due to heat concerns. Tucson Audubon is exploring the potential benefits and risks of using nest boxes in our region, and Thursday’s speaker will report on some preliminary data gathered on nest box temperatures.
Horst moved to Tucson to do field research on band-tailed pigeon nesting while considering options for graduate studies. Since then, he has worked on a number of bird research projects, including burrowing owls.
He earned a master’s degree in Ecology from the University of Arizona, and has been working as a Restoration Ecologist for Tucson Audubon for two and a half years, planning and implementing ecosystem restoration projects as well as species-specific habitat restoration and reconciliation projects.
Written by Beverley Robertson, Academy Village Volunteer
