Tuesday 24 April 2012

Habitats: Dying Spruce Forest

This photo shows a dying mixed spruce-beech-fir forest. After a fire or an avalanche (as in this case), most beech trees fall and the damaged, broken standing spruces become infested with bark-beetles, especially Ips species. Such forests are major feeding habitat for woodpeckers, especially Eurasian Three-toed Woodpeckers which subsequently invade and breed in high densities. Photo taken in the Austrian Alps, April 2012, Gerard Gorman.

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