Pileated Woodpecker video

[NSBound]

We have a nesting pair in the woods here, and have heard their familiar call over the last 40 years at this place.
Thanks for getting the good video, as they often don't sit still for pics.

For sure I've heard them, both calling and pecking, than I have seen them! I tried to switch to my still camera when I ended the video but the movement spooked him and off he went......

 

[irvingj]

When I was a kid in NH, I had heard of them but had never seen one. Finally, we have some around and I "catch" them once in a while. You're right, they're one big woodpecker! The holes they make aren't too small, either! Had one essentially cut a tree down for me. Landed right across the driveway, however.... Nice video!

 

[Thomas]

Thanks for sharing shall be passing on to others.

Gotta love when out for morning stroll at dawn when one surprises on mailbox or electric transformer..yikes.

 

[Travelover]

We have a newly arrived pileated woodpecker here in metro Detroit. They are spectacular to see - bright red markings and the size of a crow. They make a distinctive oval hole about 6"x4" or larger. When they go after a really rotten tree, it looks like someone took a hammer and wood chisel to it, with a huge pile of chips piled on the ground.

An interesting woodpecker fact - their tongues are anchored to the top of their skull so they can unroll it way past their beaks to go after insects deep in the wood.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I have spent a good deal of time in the woods, hiking, hunting, birding, etc. I guess that on average, I might have seen six pileated's a year.

Two days after moving to south central KY from Pa, I noted a crow sized bird in the back of our property. But wait, that bird is not acting like a crow! I soon realized what I was seeing and called my wife but she was too late. Not to worry because we saw the bird again soon after.

We are fortunate to have a neighbor with a goodly amount of preserved woods. Still, having once lived near a 60,000 acre national recreation area, the pileated's are a treat.

They regularly visit our feeding station, often two at a time and rarely three. We also have the usual downy's, hairy's, red belly's and red headed during the breeding season.

I am attaching a photo of one on our "suet post" if you note the dark spot.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

We live in the country north of Houston and see them every summer. Tom cut down a rotten tree a few years back and we were going to take out the big stump. When we saw the pileated working on it we left it all summer for him to work on. They are one big bird that's for sure.

 

[dmccarty]

We have a pair of them on our place. We seem the often and hear them pecking and calling very frequently. We are VERY lucky to have them. And the hawks. And the freaky big owls. And the family of foxes.

The wood peckers are VERY shy. I have seen them around the house but as soon as I get the camera and open the door off they go.

And they are big. We had some smaller wood peckers they other day which we could barely see.

Later,
Dan

 

[nickel plate]

Every year for the past twenty better or so in September I attend a small gathering of guys that I have known since the second grade. We meet on a 1200 acre ranch just above Lake Berryessa in slightly northern California. Two years ago I arrived at the vacant ranch a couple of days early as I wanted to spend some quiet time with the spirit of the recently departed owner of the ranch-one of my best friends throughout life. While sitting behind the old original spanish land grant cabin in a comfortable chair that late afternoon and watching for signs of wildlife coming down the the creek, I heard an unfamiliar pecking as it was a slow and low bass rumble of a woodpecker behind me in a volunteer walnut tree which shades the cabin from the afternoon sun. Turning around, I saw my first and probably last Pileated beating holes in that ancient walnut.
A day later the rest of the group arrived and I told of the encounter, one of the guys who is somewhat of a birder looked at me slightly askance after my disclosure. On the second day of us all being there, the birder and I were sitting in those same chairs, staring out our eyes in the late afternoon when again and in the same tree, landed the Pileated. My birder friend who also has never seen one gave me a "well done" nod.

 

[NSBound]

They are a rare treat for sure. Again just a couple of days ago though, I was walking down my path to the river and there was another large pileated sitting busy pecking on a dead stump. He was sitting just at the base of the stump, took a brief pause to try to stare me down, and then he just turned back to his stump and got back to work tearing it apart. I was only about 25' from him, but this time unfortunately I didn;t have my camera with me.

 

[WVBill]

We get several at our bird feeder outside our kitchen window every spring-through summer. Magestic birds.

We also get Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Eastern Bluebirds, Goldfinches, Juncos, lots of Cardinals, and Boat Tailed Grackles among other assorted wrens and finches.