The woodpecker fauna on ten selected forest areas in the Gesäuse National Park

Woodpeckers are probably one of the most famous forest-inhabiting bird species. Due to the eye-catching drum vertebrae and the traces of their chopping and construction activities on the trees, they are easy to observe. As so-called key species, woodpeckers create essential habitat elements for other animal species. They play a particularly important role as cave builders. Its attractive appearance and lifestyle make the woodpeckers excellent ambassadors of the forest ecosystem. With their help, the public can be sensitised to connections and problems in this habitat (MIRANDA & BÜRGI 2005). Woodpeckers have high conservation relevance: Of the 5 species identified in this study, two species, grey woodpecker and whiteback woodpecker, are potentially endangered according to the Austrian Red List (near threatened). Four species, three-toe, grey, black and white-backed woodpecker, are listed in Annex I to the EU Birds Directive. Each species of woodpecker claims a very specific section of the forest habitat and places special demands on forest structure, tree species composition and food supply. Changes in the use of forests therefore have a different effect on each species. Woodpeckers are very faithful to location, especially whiteback and three-tone woodpeckers are regarded as indicator species for the assessment of forests due to their close attachment to structurally rich, old- and dead-wood-rich forests. The occurrence of different woodpeckers in the same forest is considered an indicator of the proximity of this ecosystem to nature and indicates the presence of other demanding forest-inhabiting bird species. It was also shown that forests with spruce have much more dead wood, whether standing or lying, than forests without woodpeckers (Bütler & Schlaepfer 2004). For these reasons, the first surveys on woodpecker fauna were carried out in 2004 and 2005 on 10 areas in the Gesäuse National Park. These are mainly stocks rich in dead and old wood, which have not been used for a long time or have not been used for a long time. Since the study areas are partly very small compared to the action areas of many species of woodpeckers (e.g. three-toe woodpecker 1 km), this study can be seen above all as the first qualitative survey in relation to the species spectrum in different forest societies. The value of old- and dead-wood-rich areas should be assessed. In the coming years, further investigations are planned on a larger area in the Gstatterbodener Kessel, as natural forest societies alternate with forest-dominated forests. In addition to the stocktaking, changes in species composition and density related to forestry measures (stock transfer into stocks with natural blending) are of interest here and are to be recorded as part of a multi-annual monitoring.