Home
Latest Updates
Backyard Birds Bird Food Recipes
Winter Bird Feeding
Bird Feeders
Best WIld Bird Foods
Bird Houses
Bird Garden
Bird Bath
Bird Watching Bird Watching
Bird Watching For Kids
Baby Birds
Birding Projects Bird Feeder Crafts
Recipes
Backyard Birds
Gifts
Bird Identification Your Questions
Your Bird Stories
Hummingbirds
State Birds
Bird Control
Site Information Site Map
Contact Susan
Free Newsletter
Bird News
Privacy Policy

[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines
 

Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus

Description:

The Pileated woodpecker is about the size of a crow.
  • Size: 16 to 19 inches (40-49 cm)
  • Wingspan: 26 to 30 inches (66-75 cm)
  • Weight: 8.9 to 12.4 ounces (250-350 g)

They are mostly black with a red crest, white markings on their head and white linings on the under side of their wings. The picture above shows a male. You can see how the red goes all the way to the base of the bill. On a female, the area between the eyes will be brownish-grey.


Pileated Woodpecker

Diet:

They eat large amounts of carpenter ants as well as other insects, seeds and fruit. You can attract a Pileated woodpecker to your bird feeders using suet bird food mixes.

The picture above shows a young bird begging mom for more yummy suet.

Sex Differences:

Colors are similar between the male and the female. The male has a red crown and red forehead with red to the base of the bill. The female has a red crown, greyish-brown forehead and is black to the base of the bill.

Nesting:

These woodpeckers are cavity-nesters. The cavity is excavated in dead wood 15 to 70 feet high. The entrance hole will be about 3 1/2 inches with a cavity depth of 10 to 24 inches. Nest will contain 3 to 5 white eggs. The incubation period is 15 to 16 days.

Range:

Pileated Woodpecker

A Few Things You Probably Didn't Know:

  • The feeding holes are recognizable by their unique rectangular shape, usually 3 to 6 inches. The excavated feeding holes often attract other woodpeckers for feeding.
  • Territory size is 150 to 200 acres. A pair of Pileated woodpeckers will remain in their territory all year around.
  • Very distinct "cuk-cuk-cuk" call. Loud drumming is done by unmated males to attract females and between mated pairs as part of courtship.

Learn how to attract wild birds to your wild bird feeders.

More information on other backyard birds.


Please tell us about the Pileated Woodpecker visiting your feeders.

Pileated Woodpeckers are my favorite of all wild birds to visit my backyard feeders. If you're fortunate enough to see them in your yard please tell us about them.

What type of feeders do you use? What type of food did they eat? My readers would love to hear your story. It is easy to do just fill in the areas below and you can even add pictures. One you're finished you will have your very own page published with your name in the title!

Enter a Short Title

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Video of Pileated Woodpeckers at the Feeder  starstarstarstarstar


Pileated Woodpecker Food  starstarstarstarstar
I ran out of suet and put a Peanut butter sandwich in the suet feeder and 5 Pileated woodpeckers started fighting over it. I think the peanut butter is ...

Pileated woodpeckers in Branford, CT  starstarstarstarstar
Last year we had a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers come and make their home in a dead tree in our back yard. We were so excited to see them for its pretty ...

Making a home  starstarstarstarstar
There is a woodpecker making a home in one of my backyard trees. It has a red colored fur on it's head running down to the beak.
It has taken him/...

One brazen bird  starstarstarstarstar
I was wondering why my suet was disappearing so quickly- my husband and I live on a small acreage outside of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. I prefer to make ...

makanda, illinois  starstarstarstarstar
We have two pileated woodpeckers frequenting our yard. I wasn't sure of their sex until i looked it up today on the internet. hopefully i will see them ...

I live in rural Morgantown, Indiana just a few miles south of Indianapolis!  starstarstarstarstar
When suddenly today (December 26, 2010) one Pileated (male) visited my small suet feeder. During the summer I see them from time-to-time but never at ...

Breeding pair  starstarstarstarstar
For a couple of years I have enjoyed watching a pair of Pileated wood peckers in my back yard, I live on the edge of Brown co. state park in Bloomington,...

Woody  starstarstarstarstar
Woody is apparently a Georgia Dawgs Fan! My family had the TV set outside for the GA-FLA game and Woody came to the tree in back of us to watch. I had ...

He returned  starstarstarstarstar
While just discovering the pileated woodpecker earlier today, I was hoping that there would be a return visit. I wasn't disappointed and this time I had ...

Climbing the tree  starstarstarstarstar
I have seened and photographed a Pileated Woodpecker in my backyard. I live on a shared acerage and was surprised to see this beautiful bird. We have ...

A big surprise  starstarstarstarstar
We live in Winnipeg,Manitoba just at the edge of the south end of the city. We have 6 feeders in our backyard, two of which are for the larger birds containing ...

Pileated Woodpecker Video  starstarstarstar

Taken February 10th in my backyard.

Comment
Thank you Fred!
Susan

Indiana Pileated woodpeckers  starstarstarstar
We live right on the edge of Geist Lake in north central Indianapolis. A week or so ago, I was upstairs when I saw something rather large land on ...

Beautiful Pileated Woodpecker  starstarstarstar
Yesterday I saw this female Pileated Woodpecker while visiting our friends near Mt. Rainier, WA. They said they have a couple of them daily at their suet ...

Pileated Woodpecker?  Not rated yet
At Fort Harrison State Park I saw what I think were 6 Pileated Woodpeckers and was able to watch them for 25-30 minutes. I was sitting in a parked truck ...

Parent Pileated Woodpecker  Not rated yet
I live in Pa. in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Today I saw for the first time a Pileated Woodpecker. To hear it's call was exciting.
It flew to another ...

Pileated Woodpecker and Bald Eagle all in one year!!!  Not rated yet
I can't get over this. We built a home on a little over 1 acre of land in Flint Texas. In May of 2011 I walk out of my laundry room door to see an American ...

First sighting!  Not rated yet
We have an open "umbrella" decorative feeder hanging 1 ft. outside of our 1 yr. old's bedroom window. I use Wild Bird's Unlimited premium birdseed mix....

House Wrecker in SW Michigan  Not rated yet
This is the second year in a row that a male pileated woodpecker is attacking our home! It uses its powerful bill to excavate the wood trim along our ...

Shy Giants-would love pointers to calm them to my presence  Not rated yet
We live on top of the MN river valley in a rural area. We seem to have had a pair for the last several years, but never seem to get them both to come to ...

Pair in Endicott, NY  Not rated yet
I live in a village where the houses are close together and just this morning, I saw my first pair of pileated woodpeckers on the telephone pole in front ...

Pileated Woodpeckers eat deer!  Not rated yet
Every fall after deer hunting, we hang a rib cage in a tree for the birds. For the past two weeks a pair of Pileated woodpeckers have been very frequent ...

Nesting pair of Pileated Woodys...   Not rated yet
We just purchased a 10 acre property with ALOT of dead pine trees. We had decided to cut down the trees and burn them. Fortunately, it was too COLD down ...

Grapes!  Not rated yet
We live on 36 acres in Osceola, WI--just 20 miles from the Minnesota border. We have a large pileated woodpecker that has been visiting our grape covered ...

WHAT IS IT!  Not rated yet
I happened to be looking out my kitchen window at the feeders in the backyard and saw this huge bird eating beside a sparrow.

I had no idea what it ...

Woodpeckers Eat All Wasps and Hornets  Not rated yet

More than once woodpeckers have exterminated large hornets and paper wasp nests. One day the nests are there, the next day all we find is shredded paper ...

4 Pileated Woodpeckers  Not rated yet
Today I watched 4 pileated wood peckers visit my hanging suet feeder. It holds 2 cakes and is made of recycled plastic designed for them. two of them hung ...

Pileated Woodpecker and Shemp of the 3 stooges  Not rated yet
I have at least 4 pileated woodpeckers that come several times to my suet feeder each day.

I mean you can hear them coming a mile off they sound like ...

Sighting in Holts Summit MO  Not rated yet
They are daily visiting my neighbors hummingbird feeder (you got it). It grabs on, wraps it's tail around the bottom, and drinks the nectar from the hummingbird ...

Monster  Not rated yet
This is an awesome bird to watch. It had come to my feeder sparingly for the last three years but has came everyday for the past three weeks. It looks ...

coolest bird I have ever seen!  Not rated yet
yesterday I was in the kitchen and I happened to is something moving on the tree outside the kitchen window I looked out the window and I took a video ...

Woodpeckers and Mating Season  Not rated yet
I have a pileated woodpecker attracted to my kitchen window. He occasionally does drum on it but mostly just looks at his reflection and I'm guessing it'...

A Great Video on Pileated Woodpeckers  Not rated yet
A National Geographic video on Pileated Woodpeckers




Return from Pileated Woodpecker to A Home For Wild Birds Home


New! Comments

Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.

© Copyright 2006-2012 A-Home-for-Wild-Birds.com