Student Researcher, Joshua Diamond, Offers Lecture on Cavity-Nesting Birds in South Florida

Photo of a Downy Woodpecker in a tree cavityTitle: Cavity-Nesting Birds in South Florida’s Urban Forests: Competition Between Native and Exotic Species.

Speaker: Joshua Diamond is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Earth and Environment in the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida International University.

Time and date: Friday, July 28th, 2017 at 2:00 PM.

Location: Montgomery Botanical Center, Nixon Smiley Building.

About the Presentation: Cavity-nesting birds are connected by their usage of tree hollows for breeding. Suitable cavities are excavated by woodpeckers, and a variety of other bird species must capture and defend them for their own use. South Florida has an unusual combination of native birds of temperate North America, tropical trees, and exotic cavity-nesting birds from Europe, Asia, and South America. A majority of native cavity-nesting birds have been extirpated from Miami-Dade County, including chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, bluebirds, and several woodpeckers. Exotic cavity-nesting birds in the region now include parrots, parakeets, starlings, and mynas. Native birds must compete with these while managing the challenges posed by urbanization. This presentation will feature a special focus on data collected at Montgomery Botanical Center.