Topic: OMG - a pileated woodpecker

[plants n pots]

This is sooooooo exciting! I've only seen them in my yard once before, several years ago, and in the same exact location - pecking on a decayed piece of tree trunk down by the rock wall.

I was on the phone with my mom just now and looked out the kitchen window, and saw this guy happily chopping away at what's now left of the trunk. A REAl Woody Woodpecker - toooooo exciting!



(sorry the picture is so bad, but it's the best zoom I could get from my deck, without chasing him away! He's gone now, or I would have tried to creep up closer to him...)

here's a great site for info and better pictures of them:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pileated_Woodpecker_dtl.html

[Dianna]

Looks like he will be cleaning up the dead wood for you!  No wonder you are so excited!   

I don't think I have ever spotted that kind before. I was reading on the site that you linked, and don't believe I have ever seen the rectangle areas they carve out for their buffet. All signs that I have spotted around here of woodpeckers are the little holes in a straight line around a tree. Aunt Bonnie has several trees like that in her yard. Are the ones that do that "sap-suckers"?

[Jim]

I don't think I've seen one of these around here either.  Right across the road from our house is the Santee Wildlife Refuge. I just looked up the birdlist and there it was.  Looks like we would see one around here as it is coded as common.  Of course we don't have many trees near the house.  Maybe we need to head out in the refuge and see what kind of birds we can see.  There sure are lots of different kinds on that list.

That's a great shot.  Maybe you'll catch him working on that tree trunk again soon.