INTERSPECIES FEEDING AND DEFENSE OF LEWIS’S WOODPECKER BY FEMALE WESTERN TANAGER

Abstract

 Interspecific help caring for young is an uncommon behavior in birds. Observations of an individual of one species caring for young in the nest of another typically entail species with the same nest type. Our observation of a female Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) guarding and feeding a Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) nestling adds to the meager body of observations of interspecies parental care for species with differing nest types.