King Of The Woods

Then, you see it. A big, black-and-white bird with a vivid red head crest flies through the trees and eventually rests on a branch.

What an unforgettable experience. It’s as though something prehistoric silently sailed by. It is pretty exciting, even if you are not a “birder.”

The bird you saw was a pileated woodpecker. A pileated woodpecker is as big as a crow. Its wings are 2 to 2 ½ feet across, and its body is almost 1½ feet long. Except for the slightly larger and most likely extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, the pileated is the largest woodpecker in North America.

The name “pileated” is derived from the Latin pileatus, meaning “wearing a cap.” (Its full scientific name is Dryocopus pileatus.) Pileated can be pronounced “PIE-lee-ay-ted” or “PILL-ee-ay-ted” — both are considered okay.

Male and female birds look alike, with those red caps, noticeable white wing linings, and white stripes on the face and neck. But the male is distinguished by a red stripe that begins at its bill and runs along the top of its throat. Some birders call this its “mustache.”

The pileated’s flight has an undulating quality, as do other woodpeckers, and its long neck is held nearly straight and its crest lowered. The white wing patches show in flight.

You’ll need to be up at sunrise to start your day with a pair of these big birds, which mate for life. Each morning, the first one up calls to the other. They spend the day together foraging for food. The birds keep in touch by calling sharp “cuk-cuks” to each other and rarely move farther than 150 feet apart. An hour or so before sunset, they silently return to the same tree and retire for the night to separate bedrooms. An old married woodpecker couple will keep this schedule all year.

Luckily for our forest, the preferred food for these birds is carpenter ants. The insects live deep in large trees and can kill their hosts. The pileateds can eat so many ants that the tree may recover from the damage the carpenters caused. Other items on the birds’ menu can include wood-boring beetle larvae, as well as fruits, nuts, and berries.

You’ll know they’ve been snacking when you find large chunks of bark and wood scattered about old logs and stumps. Some of the wood chips can be as large as your hand. Of course, it could also be the work of a hungry bear, so beware.

When you find chips at the base of a tree, look up. If there are rectangular holes in the tree, you may have just discovered a pileated nest. Most nests are in dead trees full of oval-shaped holes. A pair may use the same tree for nesting for years, but they hollow a new nest cavity each year. The home tree is eventually riddled with holes. They will build in a live tree, but they prefer a dead one with no branches, hidden deep in the leaf canopy of living trees.

When a pileated is pecking for food or digging out a new nest, it sounds like someone is banging away with a hammer. Drumming up a mate is a very different sound.

From mid-March through early May, a single male, to claim his territory and attract the interest of a suitable female, drums loudly. He will drum on anything that makes him happy and produces a big racket. Hollow trees, hollow branches, and chimneys work nicely. Once I saw a pileated hammering on an empty 50-gallon oil drum. You can hear them drumming any time of year, but more in the spring and less in the fall.

Females also drum, but males drum more. No matter who is doing the drumming, the noise gets softer during the last few seconds.

The nest is hollowed out in April, and it averages 50 feet up the trunk of a tree. Both birds build the nest and hollow the cavity to a depth of 10 to 24 inches down to a bowl-shaped bottom. No nesting material is brought into the new home for the little ones.

A fairly large tree is needed for the nest. That limits the choices and may cause considerable conflict between mated pairs. The winners may need to start more than one nest before they find a tree that is rotten enough for them to carve the size hole they need.

The pair will have only one brood per year. Both parents incubate the three to five glossy, white eggs. Guard duty lasts about two hours. At shift change, the relief is acknowledged from inside the tree, and the retired babysitter flies off to feed.

The nest is rarely left unguarded during the 12 to 16 days until the eggs hatch. The little ones are fed regurgitated insects by both parents. When they are two weeks old, and left alone for a few minutes, they’ll stick their heads out of the nest and take a look at their new world. They wisely keep quiet until a parent returns.

Around their 26th to 30th day on earth, the young birds will leave the nest. They may fly as far as 200 to 300 feet away on their first flight from home. The parents will continue to feed them, at least in part, for three months or so.

The pileated is found in mature forest from the Gulf of Mexico northward, up the Atlantic coast, across Canada to the Rocky Mountains, and down the Pacific coast. It takes a large area to support a pair of these birds. They can claim a territory of 150 to 200 acres and defend this home ground year-round.

Many other animals that use tree nests also live in the woods. Most of the time, they ignore each other. However, all is not peaceful in the forest. First of all, other tree-nesting birds, such as bluebirds, wrens, owls, and other woodpeckers occasionally take a crack at the pileated nest cavity as a possible place to settle down. But the pileated’s defense posture is impressive. It spreads its wings stiffly, holds its red crest erect, and fights fiercely. Usually, it overcomes attempted coups.

Squirrels are one exception. Posturing, pecking, and squawking by a huge pileated (amazingly) do not stop these furry thieves. Most of the time, the squirrel will win and take over the hole.

Another nemesis would be a large tree-climbing snake, which could eat the eggs or the young.

Our woodpecker can escape the danger presented by small hawks by hitching around the tree until the hawk gives up. But the peregrine falcon can take a full-grown pileated out of the air so quickly, it does not have a chance.

Anytime you are in a pileated’s neighborhood, you might encounter one. Seeing these spectacular birds is a memorable experience. And since they don’t migrate, they are around all year. Try searching for some this winter.