Thursday, March 15

Pileated Woodpecker Photos

While having breakfast a couple weeks ago we noticed a pileated woodpecker in our backyard. So I grabbed the camera, fully knowing that it would fly away before I could get a shot. To my surprise, he decided to hang around for awhile.

After the extremely rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), this is the largest woodpecker in North America. Despite its size, this elegant woodpecker is often shy and hard to observe. Obtaining a close view of one usually requires careful stalking. Although primarily a forest bird, the "Logcock" has recently become adapted to civilization and has become relatively numerous even on the outskirts of large cities, where its presence is most easily detected by its loud, ringing call and by its large, characteristically rectangular excavations in trees. Its staple food consists of carpenter ants living in fallen timber, dead roots, and stumps. The woodpecker excavates fist-sized rectangular cavities, then uses its enormously long, sticky tongue to reach the ant burrows. - eNature


From the look of all the new holes in the trees, he has been hanging around.










(Pileated Woodpecker in flight, towards the camera. Wings up, tail behind.)










Copyright: Fred Fry 2007.

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