A threatened woodpecker species is now thriving in an unexpected location — a military bombing range. Conservation biologists have successfully turned the Avon Park Air Force Range in Florida into a sanctuary for red-cockaded woodpeckers.
Between 1998 and 2016, conservationists translocated 54 red-cockaded woodpeckers from six healthy populations to Avon Park. Spanning 106,000 acres, the military training site is where the Air Force practices air-to-ground bombing and gunnery exercises. But it also happens to be the perfect sprawling home for this at-risk bird species.
Researchers hoped moving individuals from “donor populations” to the area would help bolster the health and resilience of Avon Park’s dwindling woodpecker populations. Now, decades after the first translocation, researchers report successful long-term outcomes.
Approximately 70% of relocated birds survived in their new environment, with many going on to form breeding pairs with local woodpeckers. Researchers found that the resulting offspring exhibited stronger survival and reproductive success than the original colony.
This boost not only increased the species’ overall numbers, but researchers say the success also helped restore genetic diversity to the area’s woodpecker population. The results, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show potential to use translocation as a conservation method to reverse population decline. The researchers add that the tactic is especially effective when used together with habitat management strategies like controlled burns and ecosystem rehabilitation.
“The only reason that these populations are still around is because of the continued collaborations and long-term investment in these imperiled species,” study author and Michigan State University graduate student Alex Lewanski said in a statement.
The researchers hope the success of the project will inspire greater use of translocations in conservation work.
“It has the potential to act as an important component of managing many imperiled species,” Lewanski added.
Once common across the American South and East Coast, the red-cockaded woodpecker has faced a dramatic decline due to habitat loss, particularly the destruction of pine savannas — or flatwoods — from land development and rising global temperatures. The birds are now confined to “small, disconnected pockets covering only 3% of their historic range,” according to Michigan State University.
The Nature Conservancy estimates there are currently about 6,000 family groups in the U.S., totaling roughly 15,000 individual red-cockaded woodpeckers. That’s less than 1% of their population at the time of European settlement.
While those numbers are concerning, the species has been showing promising signs of recovery. In November 2024, the red-cockaded woodpecker was reclassified from an “endangered” to a “threatened” species — a notable milestone after being federally listed as endangered since 1970.
And Avon Park is playing a key role in that recovery, especially since the land area houses more than 35,000 acres of pine savannas. These flatlands offer a stable habitat not just for the red-cockaded woodpecker, but for the more than 40 additional at-risk species that call Avon Park home — even amidst the occasional booming training exercise.
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