Bird’s nesting in traffic snow poles in Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

In Japan, metal snow poles are placed beside roads in heavy snowfall regions, indicating the road edges to drivers during winter. Some poles have a hole at the end, and some cavity-nesting birds use these as nesting cavities. During the 2019 breeding season, we investigated how many birds nested in such poles along a road around Lake Onuma, Hokkaido. A total of 218 poles was checked, 89 contained holes and birds certainly nested in 14 poles and may have nested in 10 more. Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus, Russet Sparrow P. rutilans, and Chestnut-cheeked Starling Agropsar philippensis were observed nesting.