Observations of the breeding behavior of the yellow‐tufted wood‐ pecker (melanerpes cruentatus) in Napo Province, Ecuador

Abstract

The Yellow‐tufted Woodpecker (Melanerpes cruentatus) is common and conspicuous across most of tropical South America. Nevertheless, there is little information available on its breeding behavior. I describe observations of a breeding pair, made between 15 February and 10 March 2016, near the Biological Reserve Colonso Chalupas in the province of Napo, Ecuador. I observed aggressive interactions between M. cruentatus and Masked Tityras (Tityra semifasciata), likely as a result of competition for nest‐holes. I did not observe cooperative breeding. My observations suggest that breeding in Ecuador may commence as early as February, and that M. cruentatus requires dead, standing tree snags, an element often eliminated from anthropogenic landscapes. The availability of snags should be part of ecosystem management, especially in the buffer zone of a protected area.