Red-cockaded woodpeckers in Sebastian, Florida

Red-cockaded woodpeckers near Sebastian live in the old pine flatwoods of St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park, mainly on the preserve's northeast side.

The preserve wraps around the North and South Prongs of the St. Sebastian River just west and north of the city. Florida State Parks states that St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park is one of only two state parks in the Florida Park Service system to harbor red-cockaded woodpeckers, and the park lists the species among its most popular birds alongside the Florida scrub-jay and Bachman's sparrow.

The viewing directions are specific. The park's experiences page says endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers can be seen on the northeast side of the preserve and tells visitors to park at the Stumper Flats or Horseman's Headquarters parking areas, on the Brevard County side north of the C-54 canal. Scrub-jays, by contrast, are found on the southwest side, about 1 mile west of Interstate 95 off County Road 512 in Indian River County. The woodpeckers depend on what the park describes on its main page as vast open grassy forests of longleaf pines.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers around Sebastian need living pines 65 years or older, because they carve their roost and nest cavities only into the soft heartwood of mature trees.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explains that each bird occupies its own cavity excavated into the heartwood of living pines that are at least 65 to 80 years old and typically much older. Older pines often carry red heart, a fungus that softens the center of the trunk, and excavation can still take one to six years. Florida State Parks gives a similar range for the St. Sebastian River Preserve birds, six months to six years per cavity, and notes the fungus generally does not appear until a tree is at least 70 years old.

The trees around each cavity form a cluster. USFWS describes a cluster as one to 20 or more cavity trees on 3 to 60 acres, averaging about 10 acres, with a group territory that may reach 400 acres. Active cavity trees ooze sap from small resin wells the birds keep open, which FWC says prevents predators from climbing the trunk. In the flatwoods west of Sebastian, those resin-coated trunks are the easiest sign of an active cluster.

Old pine forest is scarce because of how the land was used. The St. Sebastian River Preserve history page lists citrus, ranching, turpentining and logging on the property before the state began acquiring it in 1995. FWC adds that longleaf pines were extensively logged in the late 1800s and early 1900s and that fire suppression degrades the open pine habitat the species requires.

Florida State Parks reported 16 active red-cockaded woodpecker clusters at the St. Sebastian River Preserve in the 2019 breeding season, up from near loss after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes.

The count has been tracked since the 1990s. Florida State Parks reports that in 1997 the St. Johns River Water Management District funded a two-year study of the St. Sebastian River Preserve population, which identified and monitored nine active cluster sites. The study concluded that with aggressive management the preserve had the potential to support 25 clusters on about 5,000 acres of habitat, a figure the park says may be revised to 20 to 23 clusters because the same land is critical to Florida scrub-jays.

Storms nearly ended the population. The park states that the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons dealt quite a blow to red-cockaded woodpeckers at St. Sebastian River Preserve and nearly wiped out the entire population, the same seasons that brought Frances and Jeanne ashore near Sebastian Inlet. Under the management program, the population rebounded to 16 active clusters in the 2019 breeding season.

That size gives the St. Sebastian River Preserve a formal role. Florida State Parks says the population is listed as a central support population in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan, a designation for state and federal lands that can harbor 10 or more active clusters.

The woodpecker habitat west of Sebastian is managed with prescribed fire, habitat restoration, artificial cavities and translocated birds under the St. Sebastian River Preserve recovery program.

Florida State Parks lists the actions taken at St. Sebastian River Preserve since the 1997 study: an aggressive prescribed fire program, restoration of critical habitat, continued monitoring of population size, reproduction and survival, new cluster sites and artificial cavities, cleaning and replacing cavities, membership in the South-Central Florida Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Recovery Unit with active participation in translocation, and fire rings around cavity trees to keep them from being scorched.

Burns are visible from town. Sebastian Daily reported a planned prescribed burn of approximately 300 acres south of the C-54 canal, 1.5 miles east of I-95 and west of Sebastian, scheduled for a Tuesday, May 9, and noted that the final decision to burn is made daily after reviewing the fire weather forecast and obtaining a Florida Forest Service authorization. Smoke from these burns over the Sebastian Highlands is the most direct sign of woodpecker management that most residents see.

Private land outside the St. Sebastian River Preserve plays a part too. FWC began a red-cockaded woodpecker Safe Harbor Program in 2006 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the program includes 15 private properties and about 65,000 acres and protects landowners who improve habitat from added land-use restrictions.

On the St. Sebastian River Preserve trails, a red-cockaded woodpecker is a small black and white woodpecker with a large white cheek patch, usually seen in family groups around resin-coated pines.

For birders on the St. Sebastian River Preserve trails, the FWC species profile gives a length of up to 9 inches and a weight of about 1.8 ounces, with a black head and neck, white belly and barred black and white back. The red cockade that names the species is a small red streak above the cheek on males only and is rarely visible. FWC lists the federal status as threatened, while the Florida State Parks article describes the bird as endangered, the status it held for decades.

Behavior helps more than plumage. The birds are cooperative breeders: Florida State Parks says families forage, nest and roost together, with non-breeding young helping raise the next brood, and each family member keeps its own cavity tree. FWC puts the nesting season between April and June, with three to four eggs per nest. The park says visitors may hear the distinctive sklit and churt calls in the pine flatwoods. The preserve is open 8 a.m. to sunset with no fee for day use, and the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail lists it at 21,628 acres with a south entrance on WW Ranch Road in Sebastian.