EARLY USE OF NEST BOXES BY BIRDS IN SOUTHERN SOUTH AMERICA.

QUIROGA, M.; DE LA PEÑA, M.; REBOREDA, J.; MASSONI, V.; LLAMBÍAS, P.; FERRETI, V.; TOMASEVIC, J.; SCHIAVINI, A.; IMBERTI, S.; TUBARO, P.

Veracruz, Mexico

Congreso; IV North American Ornithological Conference; 2006

American Ornithologist Union

Nest boxes have been widely used through the Northern Hemisphere to study different bird species, but not in South America. Nest boxes were put up and maintainedbriefly near Buenos Aires in the mid-1920’s and in the 1980’s, but the practice has not taken hold. Starting in 2000, nest boxes have been put up as part of investigationsof birds in forest habitats and to study wrens (Troglodytes) and swallows (Tachycineta). We here report on the occupancy of nest boxes and the breeding success of thevarious species that used them at twelve different localities in Argentina and Chile. In several localities, swallows were slow to colonize boxes, suggesting that the birdsmay need considerable time to learn that boxes are viable nesting sites, but subsequent deployments in other habitats with the same target species indicate that theprimary factor impeding the colonization of nest boxes is the availability of other nest-sites in the surrounding area. Specifically, southern Tachycineta are less tied to box(and tree-hole) nesting than are their northern congeners, with T. leucorrhoa readily accepting small holes in buildings and T. meyeni occupying tunnels in cliffs.