Pileated Woodpecker

Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!

Our species this week is the Pileated Woodpecker!

Dryocopus pileatus

Welcome to our Wildlife of the Week. This week we feature the pileated woodpecker. The pileated woodpecker is North America's largest woodpecker, with the possible exception of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed be reclassified as extinct. They are about 18 inches long with a wingspan up to 30 inches. They are primarily black with white neck, face and underwing stripes and males have a red cheek stripe. They have a prominent red crest or "mohawk" on their head. "Pileated" refers to this red crest, from the Latin pileatus meaning "capped".

Pileated woodpeckers prefer mature deciduous or coniferous woodlands. Their favorite food is carpenter ants but they will eat a variety of insects and wood-boring beetle larvae as well as berries and fruits. They can often be observed hewing out large holes in tree trunks in their search for insects or excavating holes for nesting. It takes a large nesting hole for these big birds and nest construction can take three weeks or more.

Pileated woodpeckers can often be spotted in wooded areas of the refuge but they are fast and wary so a brief glimpse may be all you get.

The pileated woodpecker in this picture was flying around in the cypress trees along Tom Atkeson Trail next to the Visitor Center. Another good spot to look for them is along Eagles Nest Island Road in White Springs.

(Photos by Tom Ress)