Pileated woodpecker

You hear a pileated woodpecker before you see it: a loud, rolling call that carries through the trees, then the heavy thud of a bill hammering into a dead trunk. It is the size of a crow, with a flaming red crest and bold white stripes on a black body. In summer the show gets better. Fledglings leave the nest hole still wearing a stubby orange crest, and for weeks afterward a parent keeps feeding them, bill to bill, while they learn to find food on their own.

Pileated woodpeckers are Manitoba’s largest woodpecker and stay all year, living in mature forest from the southeast through the Interlake and parkland to the boreal. Young birds typically leave the nest around late June and July, which is when families like this one start turning up at feeders and bird baths. Carpenter ants are a favourite food, and the big rectangular holes the adults chisel out of rotting wood later shelter owls, ducks, and other wildlife. Winter is often the best time to see one, when they visit feeders for suet.

Adult pileated woodpecker feeding a fledgling on a wooden railing

Photos

  • Adult pileated woodpecker feeding a fledgling on a wooden railing
  • Fledgling pileated woodpecker watching an adult on a railing
  • Young pileated woodpecker with an orange crest perched on a railing
  • Young pileated woodpecker perched on a fence rail
  • Young pileated woodpecker hanging from a hanging feeder
  • Pileated woodpecker perched on a bare branch against a dark background
  • Close-up of a pileated woodpecker with red crest at a suet feeder
  • Pileated woodpecker standing on the edge of a stone bird bath
  • Pileated woodpecker clinging to a feeder post eating suet
  • Pileated woodpecker with wings spread against a tree trunk

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