The Pileated Woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, ranges across the southern regions of Canada from coast to coast, and south throughout the eastern half of the United States as well as down the northwest coast. In most of its range, it’s the largest woodpecker—in the southeastern United States and the lower Mississippi Valley, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is slightly larger, but this species may be extinct.
Identification of the Pileated Woodpecker
The Pileated Woodpecker often announces its presence with loud knocking on dead trees as it forages for insects. As big as a small crow, the bird can make a decaying trunk sway and vibrate visibly.
Dryocopus pileatus is virtually unmistakable throughout its range due to its large size and bold markings. The male is black with a red crest on the top of its head, and a red stripe running back from its beak. A solid white stripe runs under the eye and down the side of the neck. Females lack the red facial stripe and the red of the crest does not extend so far forward on the crown. In flight, the birds expose obvious white patches on the underside of the wing.
Diet and Feeding Habits of the Pileated Woodpecker
Like most woodpeckers, Dryocopus pileatus, eats insects that it finds living in dead wood. Carpenter ants are a major part of its diet, but it also eats beetle larvae, and enjoys wild fruit and nuts, particularly when insects are in short supply. Attracted to dead rotting trees that are the habitat of carpenter ants, the bird pries off strips of wood with its beak, carving large rectangular holes.
Nesting and Breeding of Pileated Woodpeckers
Pairs of Pileated Woodpeckers stay together all year round and most don’t migrate. They establish a territory in old, often mixed growth, forest that contains large dead trees. They defend their from other pairs, especially during the breeding season. Each spring the pair excavates a new nesting hole, with a large opening that is slightly taller than it is wide, 4.5 to 38 meters (15 to 125 feet) above the ground. A tree with a rotten center is preferred as the birds can then easily hollow out a nesting cavity about 40 cm (15.5 inches) deep and line it with wood shavings.
- The female lays between one and six eggs.
- Both parents share in incubating the eggs , which hatch in about two and a half weeks.
- Parents forage for food and regurgitate food for growing nestlings.
- Young fledge at about four weeks, but remain with their parents for several months as they learn to find their own food.
Conservation Status of Pileated Woodpeckers
Because the Pileated Woodpecker depends on large dead trees for nesting and roosting sites, and for food, the species is vulnerable to forestry practices that leave no large trees standing. In the past, the birds have been shot for sport and for food, and their numbers declined. Fortunately, they are increasing again and the Pileated Woodpecker is not a species of conservation concern.
Interesting Facts About Pileated Woodpeckers
A Pileated Woodpecker is always an impressive sight simply because of its size and powerful pecking activity, but there are other interesting things about the bird:
- In choosing large dead trees as nesting sites, Pileated Woodpeckers put themselves and their young at considerable risk of being struck by lightening during electrical storms.
- Nest excavation can take up to six weeks, with both birds taking part.
- The birds’ extensive excavating in dead wood attracts and supports other birds that also feed on the multitude of creatures living there. In addition, the holes they leave in trees, particularly nesting holes that they abandon each year, provide homes for other cavity nesting birds and other animals.
- Pileated Woodpeckers may be responsible for the continuing debate about whether the Ivory-billed Woodpecker still lives. The features that distinguish these two very similar species are described by the National Audubon Society.
Related Content
About Woodpeckers, Flickers, and Sapsuckers
Sources
Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Perrins, Christopher ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003
"Ivory-billed Woodpecker vs. Pileated Woodpecker: Key Differences." National Audubon Society: audubon.org.
"Pileated Woodpecker." Bird Web. Seattle Audubon Society: birdweb.org.
"The Pileated Woodpecker." Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds
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