niche seperation.

The way different animals make use of it. An oak tree is beautiful, and an oak woodland is an incredibly rich habitat in the United Kingdom. It supports a vast amount of life and the reason for that is the oaks have been growing for longer than any other species. So lots of invertebrate herbivores like caterpillars, bugs and beetles have learned to feed on them. This the food for birds, so that's why its such a rich habitat. But how do they all live in a oak woodland, feeding on the same trees at the same time. This is  something niche separation.They portion themselves so they reduce the amount of competition. They find different ways of feeding in the same place at the same time. How does it work? Lets start at the bottom of the oak tree. The ground beneath the oak tree has plenty of insects and other invertebrate's living on it. This is the food for robins, blackbird, thrushes and even redstarts. Then we have the trunk, this home to some charismatic members of the oak community, the treecreeper and nuthatch. Treecreepers climb up the tree closely examining all of the crevices, into which they put their very fine bill to remove their prey. Nuthatches will go up and down the tree looking for similar things. The nuthatches bill is slightly larger than the treecreeper and they will also eat a little bit of fruit. Then you have the greater spotted woodpecker, if there is any dead wood the greater spotted woodpecker will peck it open on the trunk. The greater spotted woodpecker will even excavate a nesting hole. As we go higher the trunk will separate onto its boughs and branches. You then have a different set of birds living up there. Most notably, members of the tit family. The smaller the bird the further it will go out, away from the main trunk. Turning the leaves over looking for caterpillars, hanging onto little branches. Because of all of this it means that all this can survive on an oak tree at exactly the same time. This is why a walk in an oak woodland during spring is so rewarding.