The red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) is federally listed as endangered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to loss of nesting and foraging habitat. Under the ESA’s Section 7, all federal agencies are directed to work to conserve endangered and threatened species and ensure their actions do not jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species (US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 2019). Section 7 actions currently taken for RCW protection include ground and manned aerial surveys for foraging habitat and cavity trees with selected methods dependent on factors like site accessibility, site hazards, and/or survey area size. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of current Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and associated UAS technology to perform aerial RCW cavity tree surveys.
