Red-cockaded woodpeckers makes their homes in mature pine forests. While other woodpeckers bore out cavities in dead trees where the wood is rotten and soft, the red-cockaded woodpecker is the only one which excavates cavities that are exclusively in living pine trees.
The RCW is highly sedentary compared to most other birds. Adult helper males disperse the shortest distance to nearby territories, as seen in the North Carolina Sandhills median 1. Juveniles exhibit 2 dispersal behaviors following prospecting forays from their natal territory Pasinelli and Walters , Kesler et al.
In the prevailing short distance mode, juvenile males and females moved a median, respectively, of 2. Following extraterritorial forays at much greater distances than their normal forays, some juveniles engaged a less frequent jumper behavior to acquire positions at other territories at a mean distance of 9.
Excavation of cavities in live pines has given rise to additional unusual and complex behaviors, ranging from cooperative breeding Walters et al. Use of live pines is also the primary reason why the species requires mature pines, the loss of which has resulted in endangerment.
Excavation of cavities in live pines is an amazingly difficult task. The time required to excavate a cavity varies greatly, but excavation typically takes many years.
