The Pileated Woodpecker visits Birds of West Cobb
Just the other day Lisa asked me to take some fresh photos for Instagram. Usually she doesn't have to ask, but in the last few weeks with us both being sick, Christmas shopping for family, crazy work schedule, there has hardly been any time to sit outside with my camera. A couple of days after Christmas though, and I was able to make some time for the birds. As I focused on the smallest Woodpeckers in North America (the Downy Woodpecker), I also noticed a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers, a pair of Northern Flickers, several Carolina Chickadees and our usual white-breasted Nuthatches. Looking away from the camera for a moment and I saw something BIG move in the far back corner of the yard, just beyond our fence. It called out before flying away and for a moment I thought I was caught in the recording of a jungle soundtrack! Once you've heard the call of the Pileated Woodpecker, you won't soon forget it.
A short time later with a female Downy Woodpecker back in my focus, (image above) something large flew right across the yard and I didn't even have to guess what it was. The Pileated Woodpecker was back! I zoomed in and quickly noticed that this was a male, as there is some red near the beak of the bird, instead of just the giant red mohawk on top of him. I walked a dozen or so steps towards him, careful to stay behind another tree while moving towards him. Then I would peak around the tree in front of me to make sure it was still there.
A couple of years ago we noticed that we had a poplar tree with a large hollow spot in the base. The tree was slowly dying but at the time still had leaves in the Spring and so we decided to leave it. While the tree is probably at least 40 feet tall, it is placed at least 30-35' from the nearest fence and any damage would be minimal if it fell during a storm. Luckily that hasn't happened so far, and since then it has died. some branches have fallen, and the very top of the tree broke off at some point as well. There is still at least 30' of tree though, and between the hollow opening at the bottom and the bark being peeled away from the top, this tree gives us lots of bird-watching enjoyment. Red-bellied woodpeckers love to peck near the top, while nuthatches like to fly to the bare hard wood and crack seeds open on it. I was hopeful that this dead tree would eventually attract a Pileated and it finally did!
The enormous woodpecker (standing over 18" tall) first perched on a neighboring tree, but quickly spotted this dead hardwood with a crack and some fungus appearing on the surface. He was ted no time at all pecking and prying and before a minute had passed, many large pieces of bark were flying off to the sides exposing many tasty morsels below the surface. For a moment I visualized this Pileated Woodpecker as a cartoon woodpecker and held back the urge to call out like Woody the Woodpecker (which probably would have terrified the poor bird anyway!).
In new subdivisions or young forests you are much less likely to see a Pileated Woodpecker. You may get lucky with Suet feeders but we have not had one visit ours, nor eat the C&S Suet Nuggets that we prefer to feed the other species of Woodpeckers in nearly 8 years. These are such large birds, that you will most likely spot them in forested areas with large, mature trees. They bore holes in the trees for nesting so the limbs and trunk would have to be quite large in order to support nesting requirements for these enormous birds. I have spotted them in the Brushy Mountain Wilderness near the Silver Comet Trail (close to Raccoon Creek), we spotted a female Pileated at Leone Hall Price Park, and we also saw one while hiking the Iron Hill Trail near Red Top Mountain State Park.
Lisa watched from inside the house as I stood there at the edge of our deck, taking dozens of photos and a few short video clips of this enormous bird. I'm happy it wasn't startled and it seemed to get a full meal out of this tree. I hope you enjoy the blog post and please feel free to share with your friends and fellow bird enthusiasts!
More details about the Pileated Woodpecker can be found at the following pages:
Camera information:
We shoot with a Nikon P1000, which is the largest "point-and-shoot" camera of it's kind (currently). It is also referred to as the Nikon Superzoom camera because it has a zoom of up to 3,000mm effective focal range. For our purposes, this giant 2.2lb camera does a pretty good job and takes great photos, videos and audio. I wonder what the cost (as well as the weight) would be if I had instead purchased a comparable digital SLR body, and enough lenses to cover the same range that this camera covers? The P1000 allows for remote shutter control via the Nikon Snapbridge App, although we don't use it. I prefer to sit behind the camera and have the freedom of moving around and capturing things as quickly as possible.
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