Pileated Woodpecker

The Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the USA (after the extinction of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker in the 1940's). Raymondale is home to several pairs of Pileateds. In the small point of land behind the Leis Center and behind several Raymondale and Broyhill Park Homes is a stand of maples and oaks where a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers have made a home. The female is frequent visitor to our suet feeder.

 The Pileated Woodpecker measures 16  to 19 inches. This female looks like the male except her red head tuft does not reach the top of her beak like the male's. Here is the male working furiously on making a home high up in the notch of an oak tree.

The red on top of his head is longer (the pointy tip is hidden behind the tree) and he has a red "mustache" too.

This male was seen in Fairview Park behind the Providence Rec Center. He was calling and posturing by ruffling his feathers. Most likely establishing his territory which can extend for a square mile. The territory of Pileateds (and many woodpeackers) is small and tight. The Pileateds have a loud raucous call that sounds like a rapid fire "wuk wuk wuk wuk wuk!"

If you offer suet to birds most likely you will attract one of several breeding pairs of Pileateds around Raymondale. A suet feeder with a paddle attached give the larger woodpeckers a place to balance their tails.

As you can see this female Pileated gives a European Starling a wary eye as he joins her at the suet feeder. Starlings and Grackles can hog the suet and devour it quickly and bully other birds from the feeder. We decided to switch out our paddle style suet feeder to a cage style feeder that Starlings and Grackles do not like (although one may decide to feed there, but you won't get a huge flock).

As you can see, this female Pileated has no problem at all feeding upside down. Small birds that feed on suet can slip easily in and out of the cage to feed.

Here is a pair of Pileateds mating high up in a maple tree.

 And beside the mating pair are their oval shaped, large nesting holes.

So if you hear a loud "wuk wuk wuk" and large black and white woodpecker with a red tuft, it is a Pileated Woodpecker. And by the way cartoonist Walter Lanz used the Pileated to model for Woody Woodpecker.


Sometimes Pileateds will "drum" on your house, but they are not making a home, just calling to a mate. They really don't want to live in your house, they just want someone to love, and they want you to give them suet but they are happy eating beetles and other insects from trees!

(all photographs taken in Raymondale, Luria Park and Fairview Park)

Why a Raymondale bird blog? Dan and Beth Fedorko have been inventorying birds for Cornell University's Backyard Bird Count (www.feederwatch.org) which runs November through April each year. This inventory keeps track of migratory patterns, possible diseases, and decline and increase in bird populations. In response to the Raymondale Environmental Stewardship Task Force, we have started this blog which is separate from the general Raymondale news blog and more personal, to share our finds and photographs. If you see any birds in the neighborhood and surrounding parkland, please send us a photo! We'll help you identify it and might even post it on the blog!