Barrow Golden-Eye Using Crow Nests
Barrow Golden-eye Using Crow Nests.-Edwards (Wilson Bull., 65, 1953: 197) describes two Barrow Golden-eye (BucephaJa iskzndica) nests in Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) nests in western British Columbia. On June 13, 1962, I found another such nest near Riske Creek, British Columbia (lat. 52” 00’ N, long. 122” 30’ W). The area is situated in that part of the Cariboo Parklands characterized by intermittent stands of Douglas fir (Munro and Cowan, The Bird Fauna of British Columbia, 1947). The nest was 20 feet up in a living lodgepole pine, 4 inches in basal diameter, at the edge of a small pothole. A female golden-eye was incubating five eggs.
Of 13 nests of the Barrow Golden-eye which I have examined in the Cariboo Parklands, all but this one were in holes of Douglas firs or aspens. The nests mentioned by Edwards (op. cit.) were in areas above the elevation of Douglas fir forests. Aspens tend to grow smaller at such elevations and would generally constitute inferior nesting trees. Consequently, it is probable that utilization of crow nests by golden-eyes is more important at higher elevations than in the lowland forest areas.-Lawsow G. SUGDEN, Canadinn Wildlife Service, Edmonton, Alberta, October 25, 1962.
